SlugTerra University Book Two
by dicarten-ice
Summary: Jacob Shane is going back to school at SlugTerra University, but what's going to happen this year? If you haven't read the first book, SlugTerra University, I suggest you read it.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1—Summer

Thanks for stopping in to read this story! I must warn you, though. This is a continuation of my first story, SlugTerra University. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do, or else this will seem very confusing. Please leave a review at the bottom!

"Why do you always convince us to do such stupid things?" Luke demanded as we rode our Mecha's through Snowdance Cavern.

"I didn't know we would wake the Ice Ogres!" I yelled back.

Let me explain this. It was still a couple months before school started back up again, and I convinced the gang to go racing in Snowdance Cavern. There are rumors that the ice gives you a ton of extra speed, if your Mechas can handle it.

We were halfway through the race when we accidentally rode through an Ice Ogre nest. I was a bit too careless turning around a large Ogre and ran into another one, waking up the entire nest.

Needless to say, we were running for our lives. I left Dozer, the Slyren that used to belong to Eli, at the Hideout, and Luke didn't have Singer, his Slyren, with him at the time.

"Yeah, well, your mom's gonna be pissed when she finds out what we did," Emma said.

I was right about to come up with a witty reply when a familiar Slyren shot overhead, reaching velocimorph in time to soothe the Ice Ogres again.

When the singing ended we looked ahead to see Karina Shane standing ahead of us, blaster poised and ready to shoot.

"Jacob," she sighed.

"Sorry…Mom," I replied. Speedy, my Speedstinger, and Yang, my Negashade, hid in my backpack. It was their idea for the race.

I tried to avoid her gaze as we left the Cavern, but it was pretty hard because she was in front of me. Don't ask me how, but she managed to sit on her Mecha backwards so that she could glare at me the entire way back to the Hideout.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded when Mark, Emma, and Luke were sent off to their own homes. "You could've been killed!"

"It was just a bit of fun!" I told her. "We didn't know we'd wake up a whole nest of Ice Ogres!"

"That's not the point! The last time you tried to have fun, you almost got your hand bitten off by a slug hound!" she snapped.

"How would I know slug hounds don't play fair in a wrestling match?" I replied. I know it sounds stupid, but when you have superhuman strength, the rules tend to fade about different topics. It's actually pretty entertaining to watch someone wrestle a slug hound, but it's a lot different when you're the one wrestling the slug hound.

"You need to think before you act, Jacob!" she yelled. "You think that your powers put you beyond rules and injury, but they don't. Everything has a limit, just like your abilities. If I hadn't been there today, you could've been hurt."

"Yeah, but—"

"No 'but's!" she screamed. "If talking won't get through your thick skull, maybe this will," she said. "You're grounded for the next month."

"What?" I demanded.

"You heard me. You are grounded from leaving this house, unless I am by your side," she said.

"I have plans to go over to Emma's house tomorrow, though!" I told her.

"You have been at her house every single day this summer. I'm pretty sure she'd be able to come here," Mom snapped.

I tried to come up with a point to refute her, but when I couldn't come up with anything I screamed in frustration and ran up to my room, slamming the door behind me.

"I can't believe she did that to me!" I screamed.

I stomped around my room for a few hours in anger before I got a video call from Emma.

I grabbed my data pad and turned on the camera as I accepted the call.

A second later Emma's appeared on the screen. I don't know why, but every time I see her I can't help but to smile.

"Hey," she said. "What did your mom say?"

"I'm grounded for a full month," I replied. "I can't leave the house without her with me."

"That sucks," she muttered.

"I can still have visitors, though," I added, noticing the slight frown on her face. That got her to perk up.

"What time do you want me over?" she asked me.

"Anytime," I replied. "What did your parents do when they found out?"

"Nothing much," she said. "They gave a long speech about how I need to be more careful and how you can be a bad influence."

"Same old stuff, then," I told her.

She grinned. "Yeah, same old stuff."

We talked for a while more before she was called away to take care of something.

"The next month is going to be sooooo boring," I commented as I put the data pad away and sat back on my bed.

"Yeah, but you won't be putting yourself in life-threatening situations," Speedy said.

"I know, but it keeps things active," I said.

"Well, how about you start reading this?" Noodle asked me, pushing a book at me.

I picked it up and noticed that it was the book Red Hook gave me. I never even started reading it.

I had nothing to do, so I opened it to the first page and began reading.

The next day Emma arrived at the Hideout at around nine morning, and we hung out around the house for the entire day, doing random things.

Over the next month we did the same thing, occasionally going outside when Mom went with us. Whenever Emma and I weren't hanging out I was either reading the book or working on random trick shots. I was already fairly good at them, and the extra time made me even better. Mario Bravado even stopped by one day.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2—Mario Bravado

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"Hello? Anybody home?" Mario said the day he visited. Mom was shopping for something so I was alone. I had never met Mario before, so I automatically loaded and launched Speedy. He ricocheted around the house and knocked his blaster away from his hands.

"Who's there?" Mario demanded. I was still in my room when I made the shot.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked, loading Burpy.

"Name's Mario," he replied. "Mario Bravado."

I actually dropped my blaster out of shock.

"And you are…?" he added, grabbing his blaster and loading his Speedstinger as well.

"Jacob Shane," I told him. I faintly remembered him from Eli and Trixie's funeral, but I was too distracted at the time.

"I remember you," he commented, holstering his blaster as I took care of mine as well. "You're Eli's kid, right?"

"No, I'm Karina's son," I replied. "What brings you here?"

"Karina had a son?" he said. "Wow, didn't see that coming. Anyways, I was just passing through on my way to a trickshot competition and decided to pop in and visit Karina. Where is she?"

"Shopping," I told him. "She should be back any minute, though. You're welcome to make yourself at home, though."

He smiled and sat down in one of the plusher chairs.

"Were you the one that did that trick shot as I walked in?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I was," I said. "Why?"

"That was a good trickshot," he complimented me.

I shrugged. "I've had a lot of time to work on it. It's amazing what you can get done when you're bored."

"Whatever it its, you've gotten good at it," he replied.

"Thank you. That means a lot coming from you," I told him.

"No problem. I'm surprised you weren't at the last trickshot competition last week," he said.

"I've been grounded for a while," I added. "I'll see if I can get my mom to let me go to the trickshot competition tonight, though."

"If she lets you go, you could sign up to compete," he told me. "It's been a while since I've had a challenge."

"Well, if I sign up, you've got yourself a challenge," I said.

We talked for a few more minutes before I heard Mom walk in with a bag of groceries.

"Hey, Mom," I said when I saw her.

"Hey, Jake. Whose Mecha's out…" she started, trailing off when she saw Mario. "Hey, Mario. Whatcha doing here?"

"Just stopping by on my way to a competition," Mario said. "Your son is a very good trickshot slinger."

"Can we go to the competition?" I asked her. "Please?"

She sighed. "Sure. You've been good lately. It's been a while since we've been to a competition."

"Thank you!" I said, hugging her tightly. She stiffened up right away, surprised, but gradually relaxed.

"We should get going, then," Mario said.

I nodded and called my friends to let them know what was going on in case they came to the Hideout and we weren't there. When I ended the call I grabbed my fusion blaster, my regular blaster, and a few slugs to take with me. I made sure I had Glimmer, Speedy and Stuntz just in case I needed an extra Speedstinger.

"Why do you have your fusion blaster?" Mom asked me when she saw it, even though she probably already knew why.

"Sign-ups are still active," I said with a sly grin.

"You are one sneaky, sneaky boy," she laughed.

"Must run in the family," I replied. She used to be a spy for the Shane Gang, and can be very sneaky when the need arises.

She just smiles as we climbed onto our Mechas and took off for Rock Lock Cavern, where the competition is taking place.

When we arrived at the cavern there were several large tents set up, and we were directed to the one for sign-ups.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3—Trickshot Competition

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"Name?" the person at the table said when I told them I want to sign up.

"Shane. Jacob Shane," I told them.

She looked up. "Jake? It's really you?" she asked. "Its Jamie. I'm in your Blaster-Smithing class at the University."

The memory surfaced of me meeting her once. "Oh, yeah. How's it been?"

"My summer's been pretty boring, but having this job makes thing pretty interesting," she replied as she typed some information and took a picture of me for registration. "You are competitor number…32," she told me, handing me a tag I needed to attach to my shirt. "Good luck in the competition."

"Thanks," I replied. I started to turn around, but she called my name again.

"Wanna go get a drink with me later?" she asked me, pleading smile on her face.

I was saved from the conversation when Emma ran up and jumped at me.

"What's up?" I asked her, catching her before anyone got hurt.

"Not much," she replied, kissing me.

"Never mind," Jamie muttered as we walked away.

"What did she want?" Emma asked me.

"Just wanted to go get a drink later," I replied. Her faced twitched to a frown, but hid it when I kissed her again.

"So, did you register for the competition?" she asked me.

"Yeah. I just hope I make it far enough," I said.

"Of course you will," she told me. "You just need to be confident."

"You stole my line," I laughed. I tell her that every time she doubts herself.

"I know."

We laughed and walked over to the edge of the arena to watch people try out. Number 23 had just finished when Mario walked out.

"Is that Mario Bravado?" Emma asked me.

"Yeah," I replied. We watched as he performed a flawless trickshot that easily got him past the qualifying round with 57 points out of 60. In order to qualify, you need a minimum score of 50.

We watched more people try, but only a few got in before my number was called.

"Good luck!" Emma and my mom yelled as I walked onto the arena floor.

"You may begin," one of the judges told me.

I nodded and pulled out my fusion blaster, loading Glimmer and Speedy. I used my Shane Star trickshot, but learned how to use it with a fusion shot of Speedy and Glimmer.

The resulting fusion shot was a very bright Speedstinger slug that ricocheted around the arena, using the rock pillars to its advantage to create a pattern that, when viewed from above, resembles the Shane Star.

When the judges presented my score, we were all startled.

I got a perfect 60.

"Congrats!" Emma said when I got out of the arena.

"Thanks," I replied. I congratulated my slugs and discussed what we would do for the next round.

"We'll need something to wow the judges, but we need to make sure we leave the best for last," I told my slugs.

"I've got an idea," Stuntz said. "Just fire me in MegaMorph where I tell you."

I raised my eyebrows but agreed to go along with it.

Five minutes later the results of the qualifying round were revealed. Fifteen people moved on, and people with the highest score went first, so I was first up.

"I hope you know what you're doing," I told Stuntz as I loaded him. I slowly turned around in the middle, and when he said so I stopped and loaded him with energy so that he could MegaMorph.

As he began ricocheting around the arena he bumped into multiple rock piles, making them topple.

"Stuntz!" I yelled. I just heard him chirp as he passed by, bumping into the piles again. He did this over and over, disrupting a pile before hitting it again to fix it.

"You scared me," I told him when he returned to protoform.

"Yeah, but it worked," he told me.

Our score was revealed to be a 59, which was enough to get us past to the last round. Other people that got through included Mario (of course) and, to our surprise, John Martin. For those of you who don't remember, John Martin is a former student at SlugTerra University. He was expelled and began working for Blakk.

"What're you doing here, Martin?" I demanded. Everyone just calls him by his last name.

"What's wrong? I just want to have a bit of fun," he told me innocently.

"No way," I said. "You were working for Blakk. There's no way you're here for nothing."

"It's the prize for winning," Mario told me.

"What's the prize?" I asked, feeling like an idiot. I never even checked.

"A Toxis slug," he said. I've heard of them. They've never been caught before, due to the toxicity of them. Nobody has even used them in a duel before, so their abilities are unknown.

"Seriously? Where did they manage to find one?" I asked them.

"Don't know," Mario said. "Somebody offered it up as a prize."

"In that case, we need to make sure he doesn't win the slug," I told Mario.

"I know. I'm confident that we'll win, though," he replied.

I nodded and we got ready for the last round.

An hour later the first person, John Martin, was called up for his trickshot. We watched as he performed a surprisingly perfect trickshot that earned him a score of 59. A point was taken off because he had to dodge his Speedstinger once.

"Good luck out there," I told Mario as he walked out onto the arena.

He nodded and performed his trick shot, which only earned him a score of 59 as well. After that was somebody I didn't expect to see there.

Vinyl Rose.

"What's Vinyl doing here?" Luke asked as he approached.

"Must be competing for the slug," I replied. She performed a good trickshot, but tied with everyone else at a 59.

"Let's hope this works," I told my slugs as we walked out onto the arena.

I got ready for the shot and used a fusion shot of Speedy and Glimmer to start with, both MegaMorphed, and as they ricocheted I loaded and fired Bugsy, who flew up and around in circles, leaving a trail of light. The light formed a perfect circle, in the middle of which the fusion shot went straight up through, just in time to create a magnificent fireworks display.

I got a 60 for the shot. I was just glad we're allowed to use multiple shots, or else I would've been in trouble.

"And the winner is Jacob Shane!" the announcer shouted when the score was announced.

"You're pretty good, I'll give you that," Mario told me as I was handed a sealed tube with the Toxis slug in it. Its skin was coated in a gleaming poison.

"Hey there, little guy," I said to the slug. "Where'd you come from?"

"I was taken from my home in a hidden cavern," he said sadly.

I was instantly paying full attention. "Was it the one attached to Dark Periphery Cavern?" I asked him as my friends gathered around to listen.

"Yes. Wait, I remember you!" it chirped. "You were one of the students to visit the cavern! Please, you must help us!"

"Wait, what's going on there?" I asked him. "Weren't Shanai and Red Hook protecting the cavern along with the Shadow Clan?"

"Yeah, but one day Shanai and Red Hook had to leave to take care of something, and a bunch of bad people scared the Shadow Clan away and set up a factory in our cavern," he told me.

"Don't worry, little guy," I assured him. "We'll take care of it and return you home."

He nodded and I placed him on my bandolier.

"I heard what the slug said," Mom told me as I was about to ask her if I could go. "I'll try to get as many of our allies to help us as we can."

"Thanks," I replied.

We got onto our Mechas and first went to the Hideout, where we met with Kord, Pronto, and John Jones a.k.a. Twist a.k.a. Luke's father.

"We need to get there fast, before any more slugs are taken," Mom said.

I loaded up with as many slugs as I could and grabbed every mod I had. I lent slugs I couldn't carry to my friends so that we would be going fully armed.

"Is everybody ready to go?" I asked them when I was finished.

They nodded so we took off at full speed for the cavern, changing our Mechas to vehicle form for the needed speed.

"Wait," I said when we reached the edge of Dark Periphery Cavern. There were a few Shadow Clan waiting for us.

"Finally, you have come here," one of them said. "The rest of us have returned to one of our other caverns. We need your help."

"What happened here?" I asked him.

"People came through here with countless ghouls, too many for us to defeat," he explained. "We had to flee, and when the guardians of the hidden cavern returned we took them to a safe place so that they would not be harmed."

"We'll fix this," I told them.

"And we will fight by your side," he told me.

"Thank you. It will be an honor to fight by the side of Shadow Clan," I replied.

He bowed his head and the five Shadow Clan members surrounded us.

"They're going to fight on our side," I told everyone before we continued.

About an hour later we reached the hidden cavern. The normally-dark entryway was empty of any smoke, so we could see a large building in the cavern.

"This is definitely not good," Pronto commented.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," John added.

"Let's get ready, everyone," Mom said. We loaded our blasters and I hooked up a clip mod to my blaster for quick reloading.

"When we get up, we split into two groups," Mom told all of us. "The first group will consist of Kord, Pronto, John, a Shadow Clan member and I. We will cover the left side of the cavern, look for any weaknesses in the building for us to exploit. The rest of you will go to the right and look for weaknesses there. Now, be careful in there. We don't know what they've got in there, and we need to be careful."

We all nodded and split up when we entered the cavern. Loki rendered Mom's group invisible, and the rest of us had to be as silent as possible. I was extremely glad at the time that Luke oiled our Mechas' joints, which made us completely soundless.

"Whoa," Mark said when we saw the building.

'Fortress' would be a better term.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4—The Fortress

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The building itself looked gigantic, at least a hundred feet tall, all black and red. There was even a large red 'V' that anybody would recognize.

Blakk.

The fortress itself was even completely surrounded by a wall that's at least twenty feet tall, and half as thick. We'd have problems getting past it, but we scouted it out, looking for any weaknesses.

"Have you guys had any success so far?" I asked Mom, using my communicator to talk to her.

"No. The walls are too thick to take down with Rammstones, Armashelts, Hop Rocks, or anything else I can think of, and there are too many guards for us to climb over," she replied. "The only entrance to this place is the front gate."

"Not exactly," I said, pulling out Digger, Eli's Crystalyd. "Come to our location. I have a plan to get us in there."

About five minutes later the other team arrived, so I explained my plan to get inside, which was fairly simple. I use Digger to create a tunnel leading inside the fortress, and we use it to take it down.

"Let's go, then," Kord said. I loaded Digger and aimed at the right spot before launching him at the ground.

He velocimorphed and began digging, but for some reason returned to protoform when he reached to the wall, returning to us.

"What happened down there?" I asked him.

"There's a thick sheet of metal in the way," he told me. "I can't dig through it."

"Thanks for trying," I replied. I placed him in my backpack to that he could recover from running into metal, and started thinking up a new plan.

"What else do we have that can get through here?" Emma asked us.

"I've got a plan, but it'll require Toxis and Forgesmelter slugs," I said, interrupting a side comment about how it would be impossible to get in.

The Shadow Clan immediately left and began gathering up the required slugs.

"I'm gonna need you guys for this," I told my Toxis slug, Scorch, my Forgesmelter, and Torch. They nodded so I loaded the Toxis first.

"Start with the Toxis slugs!" I told the others. A guard must have heard us talking, because someone walked up to the wall and yelled in our direction.

"Fire!" I yelled. We all aimed and launched the Toxis slugs, which stopped excreting acid long enough for us to handle them.

Within a second fifteen Toxis slugs velocimorphed and sprayed acid at the wall, causing it to melt slightly.

"Forgesmelters at the ready!" I yelled. The guards began firing on us, though, so Mom and I fired Burpy and Saphira, Mom's Infernus, up at the wall to create another wall of flame to push the goons back long enough for us to launch enough Forgesmelter slugs to melt a hole in the wall.

We all managed to run through before the hole caused the wall to buckle and collapse in that area.

"We need to get inside!" Kord shouted as we began fighting off goon with MegaMorphs.

"Everyone hold onto me!" I yelled, pulling out the Shadow Walker.

Everyone placed a hand on me as I pushed the button on the side to teleport us inside.

"Well, this didn't work as I planned," I commented when we reappeared in the barracks room. The Shadow Clan members shrieked at the goons, distracting them so that I could launch the Toxis slug to melt a hole in the wall for us to pass through.

We ran through the fortress and took down every goon that faced us until we reached a room with a very large, very thick door.

"We can get this," Luke told me, eyes glowing orange.

I nodded and my eyes glowed as well as we used our powers to shove the door open to reveal the one person _nobody_ expected to see.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to arrive," Leon Blakk said as fifty goons behind him loaded ghouled Infernuses, Forgesmelters, and Enigmos.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5—Leon Blakk

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Disclaimer: I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs. I'd like to thank the people who have lent me their OCs. You know who you are.

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"How did you escape?" Mom demanded as I kept myself from pounding his face in. He was the one who fired the Boon Deaths that killed Eli and Trixie.

"A friend helped me," he said as a very large and muscular person walked in. His face was pale and had slight horns, so I was confused about who, or what, he was.

"How has that creature gotten here?" one of the Shadow Clan hissed.

"A simple portal I created with some ghouled Boon Docs," Blakk told us. "Diablos Nacho aided my father, and he has decided to help me."

I automatically recognized the name. He's a Darkbane.

"Do you seriously think this many goons will be able to defeat us?" I demanded, loading Medic, my Boon Doc, with energy the entire time.

"Why yes, I do," Blakk told me. He raised his hand and fifty-one blasters began charging to fire.

"Get your Boon Docs ready," I told Mom and Emma as my finger slowly tightened. I could already hear their blasters charging, though.

Blakk's hand formed a fist and soon we had a ton of ghouls racing at us.

We launched our own slugs as well. Emma must have equipped the double barrel mod I made for her, because she used a fusion shot of her Fandango and Boon Doc to boost the power. I must have charged more power than usual, because Medic reached a velocimorph past MegaMorph, healing over half the ghouls by himself.

"What was that?" Emma asked me as the other Boon Docs healed the rest of the ghouls and we continued firing slugs.

"I don't know, but it was awesome!" I replied as I fired Nuker to take down a Grimmstone.

We dueled back and forth for about ten minutes, using the healed ghouls we would find against them. After the tenth minute I got sick of it all and fired a fusion shot of Medic and Yang followed by a fusion shot of Tesla and Thorn.

The attacks soon caused the goons, Blakk, and Nacho to run out of ghouls, so Blakk and Nacho fled as we tied up the goons with Arachnets and Lariat slugs.

"We need to get rid of this place," I said when they were taken care of. "This puts all slugs at risk by being here."

"Agreed," the Shadow Clan members told me. "We will clear out the slugs and make sure nobody is still here. When we finish, we will aid you in getting rid of this monstrosity."

I nodded and we made our way out, making sure to evacuate anybody we encountered along the way, even if they didn't want to evacuate.

We waited outside for about an hour before the Shadow Clan teleported in front of us with a lot of Sand Anglers.

"Use these to sink the building," they told me. I passed on the message and we began firing Sand Anglers, creating deep pits for the fortress to sink into. I even used Digger a few times to create a large sinkhole.

After another thirty minutes of this the fortress finally gave in, collapsing in on itself before slowly sinking into the quicksand and sinkholes we created.

"Looks like you've got your home back, more or less," I told the Toxis slug when we closed the holes. The fortress was placed in the giant meadow, so, the only think that really changed was that there were no more flowers, but they would gradually grow back. Shinai and Red Hook's houses even survived.

"You'll have to make sure this cavern can't be accessed as easily anymore," I told the Clan members.

"We know," they hissed back at me. "We will return this cavern's guardians to their homes and help them fix this cavern, as well as place a few Guardian slugs here to create a forcefield strong enough to repel any intruders."

"Thank you," I replied. They nodded and teleported away.

"Here you go, little guy," I added, removing the tube with the Toxis slug in it. "You can go back home."

Instead of leaving, though, he just hopped onto my hand.

"Ah!" I screamed, expecting to feel pain as the poison seeped into my skin. Instead, I felt nothing.

"I won't hurt you," it told me. "That's just for defense. I want to join your team. I want to help other slugs like you do."

I smiled and lifted him up. "Okay. How does the name 'Toxin' sound to you?"

"Sounds great!" he replied. I nodded and placed Toxin in my backpack to meet the others.

"We should be getting back home," Luke said. "It's been a long day."

"I agree," Mom added.

We set off for home at a slightly slower pace, but Emma and I got into a Mecha race. She used her powers to supercharge her Mecha's speed, but I changed my Mecha, Stryder (STRY-D3R) into one of its vehicle modes, a crotchrocket. I shot ahead of her and arrived at the Hideout ten minutes before everyone else.

Unfortunately, that meant I found Blakk and Nacho waiting for me ten minutes before everyone else.

"Hello, Jacob," Blakk growled as I walked in, unknown to the danger in front of me.

I tensed and reached for my blaster, but Nacho came up from behind and grabbed me, pinning my arms to my sides.

"I'm not very happy about you destroying my fortress," Blakk said calmly. My eyes instantly began glowing bright blue as I accessed the full extent of my powers to push Nacho back. Blakk just frowned and fired a Boon Death at me, but I counteracted with a SuperMorphed (that's what I call it when I fire a slug past MegaMorph) Medic, which was more than enough to heal the Boon Death.

"Well, you are certainly getting better with those abilities of yours," Blakk said as I fired Speedy at him. I didn't have enough energy left to SuperMorph him, but the trickshot was still enough to cause damage to Blakk's blaster.

For the next ten minutes, I tied up Blakk and fought Nacho in hand-to-hand combat. I was very thankful for the martial arts Mom taught me, because if I didn't have the training, I would've lost the fight right away.

"Jake! Why'd you go so fast…" Emma began as she walked in. When she saw us fighting she froze and drew her blaster, but couldn't get in a clear shot without hitting me.

"Do it!" I told her, knowing that it was what she was thinking. "Now!"

She hesitated but aimed and fired Bruiser, her Armashelt, at us.

I felt the slug clip my side as it rushed past at Nacho, catching him unawares and knocking him unconscious.

"Jacob!" I heard her scream in horror. I had no idea what she was talking about until I saw my side.

There was a large gash in my side, and it was bleeding bad.

"Oops. Guess I didn't get out of the way fast enough," I mumbled before I passed out.

When I passed out I could still sense people around me, and could somehow heard other people rush in.

"Jacob, wake up," Emma told me, shaking my side repeatedly. I couldn't respond, even though I wanted to.

"What happened?" Mom demanded, running to my side.

"I…I…" she stuttered, unable to say it.

"He needs Boon Docs," Mom said. I heard her load a slug, probably her Boon Doc, Jade, and fired it at me in MegaMorph.

"We need more power than that to heal him," Emma said. Jade did enough for me to open my eyes in time to see Mom's eyes begin to tear up.

"SuperMorph," I whispered. "Use Doc. Load him with more energy than MegaMorph."

Emma barely heard me, but grabbed Doc from my side, where he was doing his best to heal me, and loaded it into her blaster. I was able to stay awake long enough to watch her activate her double barrel mod as well so that she could load her Fandango. She loaded them with so much energy that the glowing light in her eyes faded as everyone else watched her launch the slugs. After that, I faded away to the blissfulness of sleep, and as I slept, I dreamt.

"Jacob," I heard a voice say. I knew it was a dream, because I never expected to hear that voice, because it sounded like my own.

In my mind I opened my eyes and saw a man with my hair and eyes, and even sounded like me.

"Dad?" I whispered. I never met him before because he was killed before I was born, but I knew enough to recognize him from pictures.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6—Dad?

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"Hey there, kiddo," he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. He was dressed in all-white clothing, as was I.

"Am I dead?" I asked him, sitting up slowly.

"Not quite," he said. "You were right in telling your friend to fire the correct slugs at you, but you have still lost quite a bit of blood. As we speak, your mother and friends are worrying about you."

"I never should have told Emma to do it," I said, thinking back to what happened. "We could have come up with something else. A different plan."

"Jacob, you did what was right," he told me. "If you had waited, you would have run out of power and Nacho would've overpowered you. It was very brave, what you did. Your aunt and uncle would've been very proud of you."

"I still don't get it," I added. "What are you doing here, if I'm not dead?"

"I'm here to offer you a choice," he said. "You can return to your mother and friend and face many more hardships that are ahead of you, or you can go with me and meet those who you loved and lost."

"You mean 'live or die'?" I replied.

"I never said that," he told me in a way that said I was correct.

I'd like to say I automatically said I wanted to live, but I didn't. I actually considered staying with Dad and being with everyone I lost. My first adopted parents, Eli and Trixie, Dad, and past family members.

He sensed my hesitation and showed me a glimpse of what was happening outside my head. Mom and Emma were standing over me, firing a Boon Doc every time one recovered, but they weren't enough to bring me back.

"Are you really willing to leave them behind to mourn you?" he asked me. "Your mother has already lost most of her family. You're all she has left."

I nodded. "I really wish you hadn't died," I told him.

"So do I, son," he replied. "Have you made up your mind?" he asked. Two spheres appeared in his hands. One of them had pictures of Eli, Trixie, my first adopted parents, the Taylors, and Dad. The other had pictures of Mom, Emma, Luke, Mark, Kord, and Pronto. My friends.

I sighed and placed my hand on the sphere with the pictures of Mom and my friends.

"Goodbye, Jacob," Dad said as he faded.

"Goodbye, Dad," I replied.

Everything faded to darkness again, and I felt the pain in my side recede ever so slowly, at a rate so irritating I wanted to scream if I could've.

When I finally woke up, the room was dark, and both Mom and Emma were passed out. I checked the date and almost gasped.

I had been out for almost a month.

I looked at my side and noticed that there was no sign of the injury except for a thick scar that still tingles when I touch it.

I glanced around the room more and noticed that I had no clothes on, so I grabbed a pair of underwear from my bedside dresser and pulled them on, followed by pants. I had to do it very slowly to prevent waking anyone up, so it took me a full hour to get fully dressed before I laid on the bed for another hour until I managed to fall asleep.

I was asleep for what felt like seconds when I heard a scream.

"Jake!" Emma screamed, waking up Mom.

"Not so loud!" I groaned, sitting up. "You're gonna give me a headache."

I couldn't get out anything else, because they tackled me in hugs.

"Ow!" I shouted. "Too tight!"

They immediately released me. "Are you okay? Is anything wrong?" they asked me.

I smiled. "Yeah. You hug too tightly."

They just laughed as the door was flung open to reveal Kord standing there, startled.

"Jake!" he exclaimed. He practically lifted me off the ground in his crushing hug.

"Not so tight, big fella," I gasped, using my powers to relieve the pressure he was putting on my lungs. "I might be strong, but I'm not invincible."

He just laughed and sat down in a chair.

"What day is today?" I asked Emma. I remembered that a month had passed, but couldn't remember the date.

"September 1st, why?" she replied.

I sighed from relief. "I was worried I would miss the beginning of the school year," I told them.

They all burst out laughing.

"Jake," Emma said suddenly.

I looked at her and was startled to see tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?" I asked, wiping away the tears.

"I-I'm sorry," she said. "About doing this to you."

They all froze. "You. Did. This?" Mom demanded.

"It was actually my fault," I told her, placing myself between them.

"_What_?" she screamed.

"When I got back to the Hideout before you guys, Blakk and Nacho were waiting for me," I told her. "I managed to tie up Blakk, but Nacho and I began fighting. Emma was the next person to arrive after me, and loaded Bruiser to take down Nacho, but couldn't get a clear shot without hurting me. I figured I wouldn't be able to keep fighting much longer, so I told her to fire Bruiser. I was sure I could survive any injuries to myself, and I did. Bruiser got me in the side as he went by, but knocked out Nacho."

I looked at Mom and Kord's faces, where were coated in surprise. "What happened to Blakk and Nacho, anyway?"

"They managed to escape while we were taking care of you," Emma said.

"I can't believe you actually told her to hit you," Mom muttered. "You dumb, foolish boy. You could've been killed, yet you did it anyway."

"I'm a Shane," I replied. "It's what we do."

She just shook her head, still trying to figure it all out.

"Why was I out so long?" I asked them.

"Major blood loss," Kord said. "Normally, though, that would get better within a week, _maybe_ two if things are bad."

I shrugged and blinked. Emma looked me in the eye and gasped softly.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. "Am I still hurt or something?"

Kord and Mom also looked me in the eye and gasped as well.

"What is wrong?" I demanded.

"Look for yourself," Emma told me, handing me a handheld mirror.

I grabbed it and held it up to my face. I looked at my eye carefully, and it took me a few seconds to notice it. There was a ring of blue in the middle of my iris.

"What happened?" I whispered.

"I don't know, but I plan on finding out," Mom said. "There's only one group I know of that could know what this is." I figured out the group she was talking about right away.

Shadow Clan.

We went to our Mechas, but Mom made me ride with her to prevent anything from happening.

We rode at full stride to the nearest Shadow Clan controlled cavern, which was about an hour away, and when we arrive there were already ten Shadow Clan waiting for us, in the middle of which was their king.

"We heard what happened," the king told us.

"How?" I asked. "We didn't tell you."

"Nothing happens in SlugTerra without our knowing," he said. "Come here, young Shane."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7—Shadow Clan

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I climbed off Mom's Mecha and walked up to the king. He placed his hand on my forehead and hummed a strange tune. A few minutes he pulled his hand away.

"How many Boon Docs did they fire on you?" he asked me.

"Three, but we fired them countless times to heal him faster," Mom said. She had placed the Shadow Talker on her head.

"Did you use Fandangos to make them more powerful?" he asked her.

"She did," Mom said, looking in Emma's direction.

"What's wrong with me?" I demanded.

"You were fully healed a week after you were injured," he told me. "The rest of the time was a mental healing, as you were aware of in your mind. Your mind was still unsure if you would live or die, and in that time they continued attempting to heal you. The result of this was that you now have an excess amount of slug energy in your body, beyond the powers you normally have."

"What does that mean?" I asked him.

"Your Strength Gift is more powerful, and you can heal other people, because of the amount of healing energy infused into you," he explained.

"Cool," I commented. "Does this mean nothing is wrong with me?"

"There is still something wrong with you," the king told me. "Because of the high amount of energy infused in you, you have become dependent on slug energy, and cannot replace it yourself. The energy will decrease every day, and unless you replace it the lower levels of slug energy will eventually kill you."

"How do we fix this?" Mom demanded.

"Do you have a Fandango?" the king asked me.

I shook my head. He snatched one from a nearby mushroom tree and handed it to me.

"This slug will be able to restore your slug energy, making sure your energy is at the proper level," he said. "If your energy gets too low, use its Dynoboost attack on yourself.

"Thank you, your Highness," I said, accepting the Fandango.

"Who are you?" the slug demanded. "I was just getting a drink of water when the king grabbed me."

"I'm Jacob Shane," I told it. "He took you so that you can help keep me healthy. I'm sorry if he disturbed you, but I need a Fandango slug. Will you join my team? I have a lot of new slugs for you to meet." To emphasize the point all my slugs jumped onto my shoulders and head.

The slug shrugged. "I'm not really angry that he grabbed me. Things have been boring lately. Sure, I'll join the team. Name's Dynamo, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Dynamo," I said, setting him in a slug tube as the rest of my slugs returned to their positions.

"Thank you for helping us," Mom told the king.

"Of course. The Gifted have always been great friends of the Shadow Clan," the king replied. "Also, I would like to know if the Gifted still have the amulets I sent to them."

Emma and I nodded. I showed him my black metal ring, still on its chain, and Emma showed him her necklace with the black pendant. The king gave a special amulet to each Gifted, which increases our power.

"Good. Those amulets have great power in them, once you unlock their secrets," he added before teleporting away.

"So what does this mean?" I asked Mom.

"It means that you'll be alright," she told me, relief filling her face.

"Of course I will," I added. "I could've told you that from the start. I just hope things will return to normal when school starts."

She nodded. She had been spending every spare minute the past week before I got hurt organizing lesson plans and setting up her schedule for classes.

We returned home and everyone else left for their own houses.

"I should start packing," I told Mom when we arrived. "I still plan on staying at the University."

"'Kay. I did all the paperwork, so you're all signed up for housing. Luke's father and I worked together so that you're roomed together, just like last year. I also convinced the residence director to place your friends in Shane Hall with you as well," she replied. "Move-in day for newbies is tomorrow, and the day after is when everyone else moves in," she added.

"Are you going to be staying close to the University this year or at the Hideout?" I asked her. Professors can either stay at their own houses or live in small apartments built for them to live in for the school year.

"I'll live here to keep the house in good condition," she explained. "Plus, the slugs will want company."

I nodded and went up to my room to begin packing. I probably wouldn't have to bring as much as last year since I knew exactly what to bring, so I just packed a couple suitcases with clothes, some of my books, a couple mods, some pictures, bed sheets, and a few extras I would need. My books would already be in my room when I arrive.

The next day Mom and I went to the University to help her get all her files ready for the new school year.

"This year has some promising students," Mom commented when she looked over several test results. "There were even a few teenagers with perfect scores, as young as thirteen and old as seventeen."

"Cool. Do we have to take the tests now after our first year?" I asked her.

"Yes, you do," she replied. "However, they are much more difficult that last time. It's not just a paper test, target practice and a duel. They are designed to test your knowledge to the limit."

"I'll be ready for it," I assured her.

She smiled. "I know you will, but you will have to be ready for it."

I nodded and we finished unpacking her papers into cabinets for the next hour before going to the Arena, where there was a beginning-of-year tournament, just like every year.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8—Tournament

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"Is it still open for people to sign up?" I asked Mom as we walked into the Arena.

"Yeah, it is," Mark said, walking up to me. "It's good to see you in good health again."

"Thanks. Did you already sign up?" I replied.

"No. I'm not that good of a duelist. Luke and Emma did, though," he explained.

"Cool," I said. "Where's the signup desk?" I added.

"Over there," he told me, pointing to a desk.

"Mom, you should sign up as well," I told Mom when we reached the desk. "It'll be fun."

"No, I don't want to make the tournament unfair," she replied.

"You mean you don't want to lose to your own son?" I added. I knew I was pushing it, but it would be fun to duel her in a competition.

Her eyes narrowed. "You've got yourself a challenge," she told me. We registered ourselves in the tournament and went to an area designed for the competitors, where Luke and Emma were waiting for us.

"It about took you guys long enough to get here," Luke said, high-fiving me.

"Sorry, but I was helping somebody get ready today," I replied. "What's the prize for winning this tournament?"

"Just some money," Emma told me. "Not much of that, either."

"Okay. When does this start?"

The announcer answered that question by requesting the first pair to duel to go to the Arena.

"Good luck," I told Emma. She was one of the two people up.

We watched as she dueled a guy a year older than her, and the battle lasted about a minute before she won by MegaMorphing Lucky, her Hexlet. His Blambaste attack caused her opponent to give up and surrender.

"Good job out there," I told her when she returned. I was up next against Mr. Mann, one of the professors, and we got ready to duel.

"I heard about what happened over the summer," he said when we were facing each other. "I hope you're feeling better."

"I am, thanks," I replied before we were signaled to begin.

He started off by firing his Phosphoro in my face. The flash actually didn't affect me, and I responded by firing Bolt, my Armashelt. He was frozen down, though, and I had to use Eli's Geoshard to create a wall of crystal in order to protect me from his Grenuke.

"You're not too bad," I said, swatting away his Armashelt after it got around me with my fusion blaster.

"Same for you. That's an impressive blaster," he complimented me, dodging my Thresher, Slicer, and launching a Speedstinger into a trickshot.

"Where do you think it'll hit?" I asked Speedy. He shrugged, but I heard a faint whistling to my right. I adjusted my stance and swung with my staff, knocking the Speedstinger at my Geoshard wall, which was then destroyed.

"Time to finish this," I added, loading Speedy and Yang, my Negashade, into my fusion blaster. I fired them, and Speedy vanished into a shadow only to reappear in Mr. Mann's shadow, knocking him out.

"I win," I stated simply as I gathered my slugs and returned to the seating area for us.

"Good job out there," Emma told me as Luke and Mom went out onto the Arena floor to duel each other.

"Thanks."

We watched as Mom and Luke dueled back and forth for about thirty seconds, when Mom took the victory.

"For the next two rounds, there will be two-on-two duels," the announcer said. "For each round, though, you need to have a different partner."

"Cool," I said, automatically moving to Emma's side.

"Who will you pick for the second round, though?" Emma asked me.

"Assuming you make it to the next round," Mom commented.

"_When_ we make it to the next round, I plan on teaming up with you, Mom," I said. "That is, assuming you make it to the next round."

She laughed and looked like she was about to try and mess up my hair, but noticed my hat and held back.

"Who are you going to team up with?" Emma asked Mom.

"Probably a colleague," she replied. She began walking around and soon paired up with the last remaining professor, one of the other Advanced Slugslinging course professors.

"Looks like we're up first," I told Emma when our faces appeared on the screen along with another two people from the remaining eight contestants.

"Yep," she agreed. We emerged onto the field and I automatically examined the duelists. They consisted of Rob's twin cronies. For those of who don't know, Rob is my biggest enemy at SU. I'm surprised he hasn't been expelled yet.

"They have Tormatos, Poleros, a couple Rammstones, a Flaringo each, and Grenukes that I can see," Emma said. I could barely see the slugs, but I didn't question her.

When the Phosphoro was fired to signal us to begin we dove out of the way as they each fired a Polero. I launched Yang as Emma launched Shadow, her Negashade. The slugs surrounded the twins in a very large dark cloud long enough for us to take cover behind a rock pile and fire slugs over and over. Emma used Lucky to cause a twin's blaster to backfire, zapping him with a backfired Tazerling, and I took out the other one with Tesla's Tazerwing attack.

"Good job out there," Emma told me as we walked off the field after being declared winner.

"You too," I replied, kissing her before watching Mom's duo crush the other pair.

"Good luck out there," I told Emma as we ran out to each person's side. I was with Mom and Emma was with the other professor.

"Thanks," Emma replied.

When we were all ready the announcer fired his Phosphoro so we began firing at each other.

"They're not bad," Mom commented.

"Yeah, but we're better," I told her, using a SuperMorphed Speedy to shoot down several MegaMorphs and take out Emma's partner's blaster.

"Good job, Jake," Mom told me, shooting down Bruiser with Electro, her Tazerling. She launched her Thugglet slug, rendering us invisible long enough for me to use a fusion shot of Tesla and Stinger and for Mom to launch Volts, her Voltnet slug. A Voltnet slug is a cross breed of an Arachnet and Tazerling. He's the only cross breed slug I've ever met.

Our electrified nets pinned down Emma and her partner, winning us the duel.

"And the winners are Jacob and Karina Shane!" the announcer yelled.

As the losing pair left the field we recovered our slugs and recharged them with Fandangos. As I used Dynamo's Dynoboost some of the excess energy leaked into my, causing my eyes to brighten. I felt ready to run a marathon.

"Are you ready to do this?" Mom asked me. "I won't hold back."

"You never have," I said with a grin.

The announcer fired his Phosphoro again to tell us to begin. Mom automatically reacted by firing her Phosphoro at me, but I counteracted with Yang and followed with Scorch, my Forgesmelter, in a fusion shot with Slicer, my Thresher slug.

She dove away from the shot and fired Saphira at me.

"Two can play at that game," I yelled, launched Burpy in MegaMorph.

The two slugs collided in midair and fought for a brief period as I followed up with a fusion shot of Medic and Yang, both MegaMorphed.

The energy blast pushed Mom back several feet, but she stood her ground and launched several slugs at me in rapid order: Hop Rock, Rammstone, Grenuke, Armashelt.

"Whoa!" I yelled, diving away. I had to use Spinner to launch back the Armashelt, and swatted the Rammstone away with my staff.

"Is that all you've got?" I demanded. I activated my fusion staff and used a fusion shot of my Geoshard and Tesla.

"What good is that?" she demanded as she fired a slug at the crystal wall to destroy it. Before it could break the wall, though, it was zapped and returned to protoform.

"Are you ready for this, guys?" I asked Blaster, my Blastipede, and Freezer, my Frostcrawler. They nodded so I loaded them into my fusion blaster and launched them over the wall.

The fusion slug launched out numerous bright blue grenades.

"Now, Blaster!" I shouted when the slug returned to two individual protoforms. Blaster had his antennae touch, detonating the grenades.

I ran around the wall and saw Mom, coated in ice, although Saphira soon had her thawed out.

"You know, using all those fusion shots isn't very fair," Mom commented when she launched another slug at me.

I dove away from Volts and launched Burpy again. She launched her Aquabeek in MegaMorph to take Burpy down.

"She's not going to give up very easily," I cursed, running behind the wall. I tore down the wall, ignoring the shocks, and launched half of my slugs rapid-fire, so that she became coated in goop, ice, water, and repeated shocking.

"Do you finally surrender?" I demanded.

"Never," she growled. She fired Saphira to clear off everything.

"Of course not," I muttered.

We dueled back and forth for another ten minutes before, somehow, I managed to disarm her with a fusion shot of Dynamo and Speedy. Dynamo's extra power allowed Speedy to SuperMorph without using as much of my energy. He plowed past every slug and ricocheted for only a split second before knocking her blaster away.

"_Now_ do you surrender?" I asked Mom, pointing Toxin at her.

"Yes, I surrender," she sighed.

"Well, that was certainly an entertaining duel, wouldn't you guys say?" the announcer said as the crowd erupted into cheers. "The winner is Jacob Shane!"

"Good job," I told Mom, giving her blaster back to her.

"Thanks. You too," she replied.

"Good job out there, guys," I told my slugs as I gathered them.

"Here's your prize money, kid," the announcer said, tossing me a bag of coins.

"Thanks," I replied.

"Good job out there," Emma told me.

"Thanks."

"We should all be getting home," Mom told us. "It's getting late."

"Good point," I agreed.

We all left for our houses and got ready to go home.

"See you guys tomorrow!" I yelled as we took off.

The next day I woke up earlier than usual for move-in-day.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9—Moving In

Thanks for the reviews! I would like to thank Create-gunner1209 for lending me his OC.

"Are you going to be okay?" Mom asked me as I carried all my things out on one hand, opening doors with the other hand.

"Yeah, I think so," I replied. I accidentally slipped on Noodle, though, and all my things went flying.

"Sorry, Jacob," Noodle said sadly.

"It's not your fault, little dude," I said. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

I picked up all my things again and strapped them onto Stryder's cargo grate.

"Are all of your things packed and ready to go?" Mom asked me when I finished.

"Yeah," I replied. I grabbed my slugs and a few of Eli and Trixie's slugs to go with me before Mom and I jumped on our Mechas to go to the University.

"It took you guys long enough to get here," Emma joked when we arrived at Bullseye Cavern, the location of SlugTerra University. She and her parents had arrived a few seconds before us, so I just laughed.

"Good to see you again," her father said when I caught up with them.

"Good to see you too," I replied. We were on rough terms when we first met, but he gradually became nicer to me when he realized I would never hurt Emma.

"Let's get going," Emma said.

"Actually, I need to go do something else," Mom added. "I'll catch up with you later, though."

She was acting a bit suspicious, but I didn't press the topic.

We continued to the registration desk, where we signed ourselves in for the new school year.

"Your schedules and room assignments have been sent to your electronic devices," the people told us. "Welcome back to SlugTerra University."

"Thanks." We accepted our new student I.D. cards and took our Mechas to Shane Hall.

"Did your mother have anything to do with our room assignments?" Emma asked me when she discovered where her room would be.

I held up my fingers, less than an inch apart.

"That's what I thought," Emma giggled.

As we went I heard various murmurs about a new Shane, which greatly confused me.

"Do you hear what they're saying?" I asked Emma. "About a new Shane?"

"No, I can't," she replied.

"I'll just ask Mom later," I said.

When we got to Shane Hall the others were waiting for us.

"What are your room assignments?" Emma asked us all.

"27," I said.

"30," Emma replied.

"26," Mark told us.

"26," Luke added.

"What?" I said. "I thought you were rooming with me again?"

"Not this year," Mom said, appearing next to us. "You're rooming with someone else this year."

"What? Why?" I demanded.

"There's someone else that will enjoy having a good roommate," Mom explained. "His need is higher."

I grunted but grabbed all my stuff, managing to balance it all so that I could carry it all in one trip.

"Let's go," Mom said, urgently yet hesitantly at the same time. It was like she wanted me to meet my roommate, but didn't at the same time.

We went inside and to the right, ending at the far end of the hallway.

"Can you get the door for me?" I asked Mom.

"Where's your I.D.?" she asked.

"Never mind," I replied. It was in my front pocket, and I wasn't comfortable with her reaching into my front pocket. I used enough of my powers to hold up the boxes in one hand while opening the door with the other.

"Who's there?" my roommate demanded. I heard him loading his blaster.

"I'm your roommate," I replied, walking in. I set my things down on the empty bed and got a good look at my new roommate.

He's about a year younger than me, about as tall as me, maybe taller, skinnier than me, and has a strange silver arm sleeve on his right arm and a metal eye patch on his right eye. His hair and other eye were an all-too-familiar shade of blue.

"Name's Jacob Shane," I said, holding out my hand warily.

He chuckled. "What a coincidence. My name's Leo Shane."

"Jacob, this is your cousin, Leonardo," Mom told me. "Leo, this is your cousin, Jacob."

"What? _Cousins_?" we both demanded at the same time.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10—Cousins?

Thanks for the reviews and Create-gunner1209 for lending me an OC.

"How could we be cousins?" I asked Mom. "I spent almost my entire life with Eli and Trixie. Unless you have another sibling, I don't believe you."

"Wait, Mom and Dad had a sister?" Leo demanded.

"Both of you, quiet!" she told us. Mark, Emma, and Luke were watching it all go on. Mom sighed and continued. "Before Eli and Trixie adopted Jacob, they had a son and named him Leonardo. They kept him in a separate Hideout and treated him well. Every time they left to take care of a bad guy, they were most likely taking care of one of you. After Leo's…accident, they spent most of their time with Jacob or visiting Leo. They developed both of your dueling skills. They agreed to send both of you to SU when you turned 15. When Eli and Trixie died, I continued it, enrolling Leo when he came of age."

"Whoa," Leo said. "This is a lot to take in."

"I agree," I added. "How were Eli and Trixie able to do all this without being discovered? Why wasn't Leo included in the will?"

"I can answer those too," Mom told us. "Eli and Trixie confided their secret in me, so I looked after Jacob whenever they were away. Leo wasn't included in the will to continue this secret, and they depended on me to settle this. Leo and Jacob, you will share their slugs, and you can both stay in the Hideout."

"Does that mean I keep Burpy?" Leo asked.

"No, you don't," Mom said. "As I said, you share the slugs. You can alternate on the slugs you take with you each week."

"Cool," I replied.

"So, cuz, nice to meet you," Leo commented. I had a typo earlier, sorry. Leo's arm sleeve and eye patch are on the left side of his body, not his right. SORRY!

"Nice to meet you, too," I replied, shaking his hand. "If you don't mind, what happened…?" I added, gesturing to his left arm and eye.

"I'd rather say it in private…" he said, looking at Mom and my friends.

"Oh, sorry," they said, walking out and closing the door.

"When I was a kid, Dad took me out on a slug hunt," he began. "I wandered off and discovered a large black and red building, although it was run down. I found my way inside and to a room with what appeared to be a drill."

He continued his story, about how he got Dark Water on the left side of his body and Eli and Trixie took him to the Shadow Clan for help. They took Leo to the Lightwell, the source of all energy in SlugTerra, and bathed him in it. The water transformed him, though, making him part-Shadow Clan. He removed his eye patch and arm sleeve to reveal a bright green eye and an arm that's black with green, like a Shadow Clan's arm.

"After that happened I had to live with the Shadow Clan so that they could train me to use my abilities," he added. "About a month ago I left and went to my Hideout, where my collection of slugs looked after me until Aunt Karina introduced herself and brought me here for classes so that I can help change SlugTerra for the better."

"Cool," I replied.

"What about you?" he asked me. "What's your story? I heard Mom and Dad adopted you."

"My mother is Karina Shane, but she wasn't ready for a child yet, so another couple adopted me. When they were killed in a robbery, Mom got the Shanes to adopt me. For the next thirteen or so years I grew up around them and the slugs. Mom revealed that she's my mom a few hours before we had to rescue Eli and Trixie from the Deep Caverns, when they died."

"How did they die?" Leo asked me.

"Leon Blakk killed them with two Boon Deaths," I said. "If it helps, I almost killed him once."

He smiled. "Actually, that does help," he told me. "So, what else is there to know about you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Seriously?" he asked me. "We're Shanes. "There's nothing simple to us."

"Good point," I replied. I let my powers out and my eyes lit up bright blue.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "What is that?" He leaned closer. "Are you part-Shadow Clan, too?"

I laughed. "No, I'm not," I replied. I explained to him about my powers and those of my friends.

"Looks like I'm not the only odd one," he said.

I couldn't help but agree.

"What kind of slug is that?" I asked, pointing to a slug on his shoulder. It looks like an Infernus, but its body is completely black, has three glowing green antennae, and green Shadow Clan markings.

"Oh, this is Save," he replied, holding the slug out to me. "The Shadow Clan used him to save my life when I was infected with dark water. He's a Pulter slug, one of the few left."

"Cool. I've never even heard of a Pulter slug before," I commented. I introduced my slugs as well.

"Are you into trickshots?" he asked when he saw Speedy.

"You could say that," I replied. "I won Toxin, my Toxis slug, in a trickshot competition against Mario Bravado."

"Neat," he said. "How good of a duelist are you, though?"

I smiled. "One of the best. I beat my mother in a duel at a competition yesterday."

"I remember that," Leo said. "I was watching. You must be good to beat her, but can you beat me?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I'm pretty confident in myself, though. Besides, I have MegaMorphed slugs."

He raised his eyebrows. "Seriously? Without an accelerator?"

"Yeah," I replied. "It's part of my abilities. What are yours?"

"Pretty much whatever Shadow Clan can do," he told me. "I can climb walls, speak to slugs and Shadow Clan, sense the presence of slugs and slug energy, I can see in the dark, I can velocimorph slugs by throwing them and more."

"Cool," I said. I focused for a second before saying, "I can speak to slugs and Shadow Clan and throw slugs into velocimorph as well," in Shadow Clan language.

His eyes widened. "Cool," he told me.

We were about to continue speaking when there was a knock on the door.

"Can we come in now?" Luke asked us.

I told them they could once Leo replaced the arm sleeve and eye patch, so the four of them rushed in.

"Are you guys okay?" Mom asked us.

"Yeah," I replied.

"So, are you guys really cousins?" Mark asked us.

"Yeah," I said.

"I don't want to talk about it," Leo added before they could ask any more questions.

"Are you guys moved in?" I asked my friends.

"Not yet," they replied. They left as I unpacked my things, placing pictures on my dresser, which is right next to Leo's. He noticed them and picked one up. I just continued unpacking, placing clothes in drawers and books on shelves.

"Is that a fusion blaster?" he asked me as I unhooked it from my backpack.

"Yeah, why?" I replied, holding out the staff for him to examine.

"I've never seen one before," he commented. "Have you used it in battle?"

"Yeah, quite a bit," I told him.

"Cool."

I placed the last of my things in their places and jumped up on the bed, almost hitting my head on the ceiling.

"All done?" Leo asked me.

I nodded and was about to ask him for a practice duel when Mom walked in.

"Good, you're done," she said. "Testing to determine your classes begins in ten minutes."

"Okay," I replied, grabbing my blasters and slugs, although I left Burpy with Leo so that they could hang out.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11—Testing

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"Where does testing take place for us?" I asked Mom.

"The Arena," she replied, pointing to the large building.

It had been transformed for testing. The top had been covered for extra privacy, and a pair of double doors appeared between the entrance and main area.

"It to make sure people can't watch others taking the test," she told me. "Slugology starts next."

Slugology is the study of slugs, and I decided to split my studies between it, Blaster-Smithing, and Slugslinging. It was a lot, but I was certain I could handle it. I would easily ace the slug language classes, I know quite a bit of slugs, and I'll probably be placed in classes with Mark, so he can help me with my problems.

"All students studying Slugology may enter now," a professor called, opening the door to release chemistry students, among whom was Vinyl.

"You're studying Slugology this year?" Mark asked me.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Cool."

I nodded and we walked inside, where two rooms were revealed, and the one we were in at the time had countless desks, each with tests on them.

"Everyone, please sit at a desk and begin your tests," the professor told us.

We all went to our seats and began our tests. I took one look at mine and almost burst out laughing.

It was all written in slug language. I didn't even know there was a written version of it.

I smiled and adjusted my mind to translate it so that I could answer questions. Some were just questions to test our knowledge of slug language, like two plus two, and the rest were about the abilities and native caverns of certain slugs. I'd like to say I knew it all, but I didn't. I was surprised that I knew more than I thought I did, though.

"How do you think you did?" I asked Mark as the tests were collected.

He shrugged. "I think I did pretty well, but having the test in slug language may have messed up a few of my answers," he told me.

"Yeah. It took me a few seconds to translate it in my head. I've never read slug language before, so it took my mind a bit longer to adjust," I replied. "Your intelligence Gift probably helped you on tough questions, though."

"Yeah, I had to use it once for a question about an Enigmo's abilities," he added.

"What's usually next?" I asked him.

"Not sure. They probably changed it from last year," he replied. "I'm sure we'll do great, though."

I agreed as a professor emerged from the second room to call the name of one of the students, the first of us when going in alphabetical order.

"Looks like we'll have to get comfortable," I commented. Both of our names end in 'S', so we were near the end.

"Shane, Jacob," the professor called twenty minutes later.

I stood up and walked with her into the other room.

"We are going to hold up a picture of a slug and read a list of their attacks," she explained as we sat down at a table. "I just need you to give me the name."

"Okay. I'm ready," I replied.

She nodded and picked up a picture of an Enigmo slug and read a list of its attacks.

"Enigmo," I said. Mo jumped out from his backpack, but noticed he wasn't needed so I rubbed his head for a second before he returned to my bag.

As we continued she showed more and more pictures, but I was even able to name them all until we reached one that looks similar to an Aquabeek, but not quite.

"Do you give up?" she asked me.

"Not yet," I replied, searching my mind. Finally, I realized where I heard its name and said "Riviera slug."

"Very good," she told me.

I nodded and thought back to where I first saw that slug for the first time.

I was about ten or eleven years old when Eli, Trixie and I were passing through an unknown cavern, where we met their friend, Elina Shae. She showed me a Riviera slug, and said that when Eli and Trixie decided I was old enough, she might give me the slug.

"Jacob, please pay attention," the professor told me, holding up a picture of a Strang slug. A Strang slug has two eyes, side-by-side, is completely brown, has a zig zag pattern on his back, and tusks that form a 'V' when viewed from above. I actually noticed that Leo has a Strang slug.

"Strang," I replied.

She nodded and we continued for about three more minutes before I was done.

"Thank you," she said. "You may leave, but please don't tell anybody about this part of the test."

I nodded and walked out. Mark was called after me, so I wished him luck as we passed each other.

"How did you do with the second part?" I asked Mark as he walked out.

"I got them all but one," he replied.

"Riviera?" I asked him.

"How did you know?" he demanded.

"It took me about thirty seconds to figure out the name of it, and I met one five or so years ago," I explained.

"Oh," he replied. "What tests are next?"

"Blaster-Smithing," I told him. "They start ten minutes after Slugology ends, so I'll have time to grab anything I need."

"Good luck, then," he replied. I nodded and left for my room.

"How do you think you did?" Leo asked me when I arrived.

"I'm pretty sure I did good," I replied, perusing my shelf of mods.

"You have a lot of blaster mods," he commented. "How can you afford them all?"

"I built them," I replied. I grabbed my double barrel mod and looked over it for any dust.

"Why do you have a double barrel mod _and_ a fusion blaster?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "I built the mod first, then the blaster for a project."

I examined his blaster for a few seconds and compared it for a few seconds before tweaking my double barrel mod.

"Do you know how to use fusion shots?" I asked him.

"Kinda," he replied. "Why?"

I tossed the mod to him. "I could probably fix the paint job to match your blaster, but it's yours now," I told him.

"What?" he asked, eye widening. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," I replied. "I'll probably give you some advice about good combinations for it, but it's all yours. I already have my fusion blaster, so I don't really need the mod anymore. Actually, if you need to borrow one of my mods, just ask."

"Really?" he said. "Thanks!"

"No prob," I told him. I decided not to bring any mods, so I returned to the Arena in time to enter the testing for Blaster-Smithing.

"You may begin your testing," the professor told us.

I looked down at the test and answered as many questions as I could in the time allowed. I was pretty sure I got a perfect score due to a large book Red Hook gave me. I read the entire thing several times over the summer, so I had a good idea of the answers.

When our time was up the professors collected our tests and called in people one-by-one. An hour probably passed by before my name was called, so I went into the side room.

"Hello, Mr. Shane," the professors told me. "Your task is to make a functional blaster from the items in front of you."

My eyes widened. I didn't expect them to give me a task that difficult, but I shrugged and went to the table. On it was simple piping, a slug tube, a fusion core, and some other various materials.

I instantly pulled up a stool and sat down, focusing the light on my Holo-Glasses onto the table. I began connecting wires, cutting tubes, and fitting it all together.

"I'm done," I said five minutes later, presenting the crude blaster to them. I cut a portion out of one tube large enough for a slug tube, connected it to the fusion core, and used the spare parts to keep it together and create a trigger.

"Now, let's try it out," a professor said. He pressed a button and a target popped up. He loaded a Rammstone into it and fired it. The slug reached velocimorph, but the blaster let out a puff of smoke.

"Thank you," the professor told me. "You may leave now. The Slugslinging test begins ten minutes after the last test for this."

I nodded and walked out, returning to my room to grab my blasters and slugs.

"Slugslinging tests start in ten minutes," I told Luke and Mark when I knocked on the door.

"Thanks," Luke replied, opening the door.

I nodded and returned to my door, making sure I was completely ready. When I was sure I was I went outside with Luke, Mark, and Emma so that we could go to the Arena.

"We will call you in one-by-one for your tests," Mom told everyone when we arrived. She must have been one of the professors giving the tests.

She called in the first name and the rest of us sat down at the numerous tables and chairs in the anteroom.

As the time passed by the numbers grew smaller. Luke got through his test really quickly, but Mom must've threatened him or something, because he wouldn't give us hints about the test.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Mom called my name, so I walked with her.

"Due to your abilities in the past, your test will be tailored to you," she told me. "For your first test, you need to create a trickshot that can take out as many targets as you could," she added. A screen showed me the top view of a maze, in which many targets were placed. As the image appeared the maze did as well, rising from the ground.

I examined the image and developed a plan, thinking it out in my head. I activated the targeting system in my Glasses and main blaster as I loaded Speedy.

"Let's do this, Speedy," I told him. He nodded so I carefully aimed and launched Speedy in MegaMorph.

He instantly began ricocheting back and forth in a zig zag motion, taking out every target he encountered.

"Good job, Speedy!" I told him when he destroyed every target and continued ricocheting until he returned to me.

"Good job," Mom told me. "For the second part of your test, you will duel a volunteer duelist with new slugs."

"Okay," I replied. I had to do this last year, but the person wasn't a volunteer.

"Here is your new team," she said, holding out six slugs. "You may use one of your own slugs as well, but the rest must be handed over until the end of the duel."

I nodded and looked over the slugs she gave me. They consisted of a Diggrix, an Arachnet, a Flaringo, a Phosphoro, a Bubbaleone, and a Rammstone. Overall, a really good team.

"Speedy, I want you to stay with me," I told my Speedstinger. He cheered as I handed over the rest of my slugs to Mom, and only Mom. I don't trust anyone else with them.

"Who's the volunteer?" I asked her as I welcomed my new team and introduced Speedy and placed him in a slug tube next to them.

"Me," a familiar voice said behind me.

I turned around and saw John Jones standing there, Loki laughing on his shoulder.

"Hey, that's not fair!" I commented. "He has, like, at least fifteen slugs, and I only have seven."

"That's part of the challenge," she said. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine," she added before walking out.

I just sighed and pulled out my fusion blaster. It's good for deflecting Hop Rocks, Armashelts, Rammstones, and most other slugs.

"You can go first," John told me.

I smiled. "Bad choice," I said. I loaded the Diggrix and launched it, creating a trench that encircled John. He smiled back and used his Frostcrawler to fill the trench with ice so that he could cross it, launching a Rammstone followed by a Polero.

I batted the Rammstone away and had the Polero wrap around the shaft of his staff, rendering it useless.

I loaded the Rammstone and launched it, followed by the Flaringo.

As he dove one way from the Rammstone I fired the Phosphoro as well, so that he dove away from the Flaringo in time for the Phosphoro to flash in his face.

He shouted in surprise and in the time it took him to recover I gathered my slugs again.

"You should've taken me down when you had the chance," he told me.

"That would make it too easy to me," I replied as he loaded and fired Loki, creating multiple copies of him.

"I repeat, too easy," I said. I split my blaster and launched a fusion shot of the Phosphoro and Speedy. His bright light got rid of the copies, leaving Speedy to ricochet around until he knocked away John's blaster, winning me the duel.

"You win," he told me. "You're pretty good. Eli and I were always at the same level."

"Thanks," I replied.

"Mr. Shane, for your ability and great attitude toward your slugs, you may keep one of them," the judges told me.

"Thank you," I said. I looked over the slugs that were gathered on the floor and picked up the Diggrix. "How would you like to join my team?" I asked him.

"Sure!" he chirped back. By his voice, I could tell he was very young.

"How about I name you Trench?" I asked.

He nodded so I place him in my backpack, which Mom returned to me.

"Why didn't you tell me the volunteer was your dad?" I asked Luke when we were out of earshot of everyone else.

"Your mother," he replied. "She told me not to tell anyone else. I don't know how she does it, but she gives you a look that scares you into agreement."

I almost laughed. Mom had given me that look too many times to count. When I was younger I'd convince her to let me do something when Eli and Trixie were away, and afterward she would tell me not to tell them and give me that same look.

"How'd you do in your test?" I asked him.

"Pretty good. I beat my dad and the other part, which was a scavenger hunt underground," he replied. He was able to do it quickly with his Sand Angler, Dune. "What was your test?"

"I had to take out targets in a maze with a trickshot," I said.

"Let me guess," he commented. "You got them all?"

I nodded with a grin on my face. "After that I dueled your dad and won."

"Is it me, or has he gotten worse over age?" Luke asked me.

"I just think that we've gotten better over this past year," I replied.

He smiled and we fist-bumped me.

"What're you guys talking about?" Emma asked, zooming up to our side as Mark ran up to us.

"Not much," I said.

"Don't…use your…powers like…that," Mark panted when he caught up with us.

"Oh, sorry," Emma replied.

He nodded and walked with us to Shane Hall.

"How'd you do with all your tests?" Leo asked me when we returned.

"Pretty good," I replied. "They haven't sent my results, yet. How did your tests go?"

"Pretty good. I got a perfect score on my Slugslinging test," he replied.

"Are you taking anything else?" Emma asked him.

"Nope. I just wanna sling slugs," he told us.

I nodded and my Glasses buzzed, so I pulled them on and powered them up using a pair of small controllers I hold in my hand. They blacked out for a few seconds before my home page popped up, a picture of Emma and I at the beach in the hidden cavern. I opened the email and saw my new schedule for the school year. It was packed, but I could tell that all of the Slugslinging and most of the Blaster-Smithing courses had no homework, all practical application of our skills.

"How are you going to manage specializing in three subjects?" Emma asked when she read the mirrored image of my schedule.

"I'm only specializing in Blaster-Smithing and Slugslinging, but I'm taking some extra Slugology courses on the side to help my understanding of slugs," I explained. In college terms, I'll have a double major in Blaster-Smithing and Slugslinging with a minor in Slugology. For those of you who don't understand it, just ignore what I wrote last sentence.

"Well, good luck with it," Mark told me, checking his data pad as well. "We're in some of the most advanced courses for our age. All five of us."

"You mean four?" Luke asked him.

"No, five. I checked all our schedules and Leo's to see if we share any classes," Mark replied, checking for Leo's reaction.

His eyebrows rose. "How did you access my account?" Leo demanded.

"Simple. I'm a genius," Mark said with a hint of humor. His eyes lit up green for a second before the light faded.

"Yeah, well, next time, stay out of my records," Leo growled. Save, the Pulter slug, growled to back him up.

"Okay," Mark said, backing off. His Dirt Urchin, Needles, growled a bit from his shoulder.

"Don't push it, bud," Mark told him.

"Hey, Leo," I said, seeking to change the subject. "Wanna duel?"

A wicked grin appeared on his face. "Yeah."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12—Duel

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"Wait," I added, snatching the double barrel mod I gave him.

"What?" he demanded, reaching for it.

"I forgot that I need to find a power source suitable for it," I explained as I gathered my team. "Before, I would just use my powers for it. It's not easy to find a power source, but I'll figure it out."

"You'd better," he replied.

"Oh, don't worry," I assured him. "I'll figure it out."

He nodded and I charged it with enough energy for one shot.

"I put enough energy in it for one fusion shot," I told him, handing it back. "Use it wisely."

"I will," he replied, clipping it onto his backpack.

"Let's go," I said, grabbing my blasters and adjusting my beanie.

We went outside and to the Arena, where there was an area large enough for us to duel. Another pair was already dueling, slinging Rammstones, Hop Rocks, and other explosive slugs back and forth.

"On my mark," Mark told us, readying his Phosphoro, Shiner. He launched Shiner and we began slinging slugs at each other. His Rammstone charged at Bolt and they took each other down, and I batted his Grenuke, Bomb, away with my staff. He exploded over our heads as we continued slinging back and forth. A couple minutes later he pulled out his Strang slug, Return, and launched it at me.

I easily dove away from him and was about to launched Yang when Speedy chirped a warning.

"Look out behind you!" Speedy told me.

I turned around just in time for Return to, well, return and knock my blaster away.

I scowled and reached for my staff, but Return circled around again and knocked it away as well.

"Looks like you don't have a blaster," Leo said. "Let's finish this, Save," he added, loading the Pulter slug.

"Speedy!" I yelled. He hopped from my shoulder and I released my power in time to catch and throw Speedy as hard as I could, straight into MegaMorph.

"Don't use your powers so much, dude!" Dynamo reminded me. "You'll drain your energy too much!"

"Thanks," I replied. Speedy missed Save by a fraction of an inch, and ricocheted around in time to hit Save back to Leo, returning him to protoform as well.

In that time I recovered my fusion staff and loaded Yang and Medic. Leo noticed and loaded his fusion blaster with MeltDown, his Forgesmelter, and Gasher, his Thresher.

I must admit, the kid does know his fusion setups.

"We have a tie!" Mark exclaimed. In that short time a bunch of other students gathered in the stands to watch, and they erupted in cheers.

We didn't move though, and our fingers slowly tightened on the triggers. We wanted to see which person had the stronger fusion shot, but I have one more trick up my sleeve.

SuperMorph.

"Dynamo, I need you to boost my power as much as you can," I told him. He raised his eyebrows but agreed.

I began pouring as much excess energy as I could into my slugs. I desperately hoped they could handle the extra energy as we launched our fusion shots at each other.

Leo's fusion shot was impressive, but the last iotas of energy I poured into my slugs allowed them to truly SuperMorph, and the fusion blast wiped out Leo's slugs and won me the duel.

"I win," I told him, loading Speedy and aiming him right at Leo's head.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied. "It's not fair, though, when you push your slugs so far. What was that, what you did to your slugs?"

"I call it SuperMorphing them," I explained. "I did it once when I pushed Speedy past MegaMorph. It gives them more speed and power than usual, although it doesn't change their appearance at all."

"Cool," he replied. I nodded. "I wonder if it's possible to do that with an accelerator."

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I'm taking my first class including the workings of accelerators this year," I explained, wiping a bead of sweat from my brow. The odd part was, I didn't feel any different until I SuperMorphed the slugs. I just attributed it to using all the slug energy in me, and launched Dynamo when I recovered. The flood of new slug energy rushing into my body was relieving, but I still felt a bit warm.

"Good duel, Shane!" I heard people say as they flooded onto the field around us.

"Thanks," I replied as I gathered up my slugs.

"Well, well, well," said a very unliked person as he approached with his twin cronies. "What do we have here?"

"What do you want, Rob?" I demanded, reaching for my blaster.

"I just wanted to meet the new Shane," he said with a light sneer. Just like every time I meet him, he has a ghoul with him.

"Well, you've met him," Leo scowled.

"What's with the eyepatch?" Rob asked.

"My eye got injured," he lied easily. "So what?"

"Does it mean you can't see if I do this…?" he began, waving his hand in front of Leo's eyepatch.

"Watch it, there," Leo said, grabbing Rob's hand. "Unless you want to get hurt, I suggest you leave us alone."

"Aw, poor little Shane," Rob sneered. "Are you sad because you don't have your mommy or daddy to protect you?"

I had to step between them to make sure Leo didn't beat up Rob, which I was sure he was able to. Being part Shadow Clan made him stronger as well as everything else.

"Oh, you're going to be the one breaking it up?" he asked me. "Last I remember, you were the one throwing the punches.

There was a hushed "oooh," throughout the crowd.

"Yeah, and last _I_ remember, you were the one getting beat up," I snapped back.

The gasp was louder this time, and directed at Rob.

"Do you really want to do this?" I asked him, my eyes narrowing as I spoke.

"Duel, now," he told me.

I sighed. "Sure, why not?" I replied. I don't think he had ever won a duel against me.

Everyone else left the Arena floor as we got ready to duel.

"Do you ever get sick of losing?" I asked Rob.

"Just shut up and duel," he said. Mark launched his Phosphoro to duel and Rob automatically loaded and launched his ghoul.

It looked different from any ghoul I had ever seen before, so I used a MegaMorphed Speedy.

When Speedy got close to the ghoul, which looked suspiciously like a Fandango, he returned to protoform and the ghoul hit me.

Instantly, I felt my energy levels go down, but Medic and Dynamo went into action, refilling some of my energy. I thanked them and used a fusion shot of Scorch and Slicer to win the duel and staggered over to my friends.

"What happened out there?" Emma asked, rushing to my side.

"He has a ghouled Fandango somehow," I said, holding up the ghoul. I managed to grab it when it returned to protoform, so I could still sense my energy going down.

"Drop that slug!" Mom yelled, running into the Arena.

I dropped the ghoul and she healed it with Jade, her Boon Doc. Emma then grabbed and launched Dynamo at me, but his attacks didn't do anything. If anything, I felt worse.

"What's going on?" I asked as my vision flickered.

Mom felt my forehead. Her usually-warm hands felt surprisingly cold.

"Am I sick or something?" I asked her as I sat down.

"Yes, but I only know one person who can take care of something," Mom said solemnly.

"Why? What do I have?" I gasped. I was barely able to keep standing.

"The Phantom Fever," Mom told me.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13—Phantom Fever

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I had heard the name 'Phantom Fever' before. Trixie had told me once about how to look out for it. It starts a just a normal fever, but quickly gets worse, leaving the victim barely able to move. Given long enough, the person will die.

I couldn't say anything, though, because at that moment I collapsed into Mom and Emma's arms.

"Luke, help me get him onto my Mecha," I heard Mom tell Luke. I barely felt him pick me up as I drifted between sleep and awareness.

I was placed on Mom's Mecha and she climbed on as well before we took off with Emma, Luke, Mark, and Leo in pursuit.

"Where does he have to be taken?" Emma asked Mom.

"The only person who knows how to treat this," Mom replied. "Elina Shae."

"Are you talking about _the_ Elina Shae, the girl Dad dated before Trixie?" Leo asked.

"The very one," she replied. "We need to make sure we aren't being followed, though. She won't come out if we bring twenty people with us."

I didn't hear anything after that, because I fell too deeply into the soft comfort of sleep.

After what felt like seconds but was actually an hour of fast travel, I felt myself being picked up again. Dynamo was still giving me energy, so I had just enough to open my eyes slightly and look around at the jungle cavern. Hundreds of slugs were gathered in the trees above, and I could faintly hear them passing on our location toward our destination. The result was a pleasant-sounding chirping.

"Who's there?" I heard a voice demand when we reached a cave, in the entrance of which Elina Shae was standing, blaster loaded.

"Elina, please," Mom said as I was laid on the ground. "It's me, Karina Shane. Eli's sister."

Elina eased and lowered her blaster. "What is wrong with the boy?" she asked, approaching us.

"He's my son, and he has the Phantom Fever," Mom told her. "Please, we need you to heal him."

Elina rushed over and placed her cool hand on my forehead, so I was able to see her. She has long blue hair that reaches down to her waist, even in a ponytail, and her eyes are a startlingly bright blue, like the color of slug energy.

"Jacob, can you hear me?" she asked, lifting my eyelids to check for any responsiveness. "I'm Elina Shae. We met a while ago. Don't worry, you'll be just fine."

I twitched my head in a nod and looked her in the eye.

"His eyes…" she began.

"He's dependent on slug energy to survive," Mom explained. "It was drained too much by a ghouled Fandango slug."

"A ghouled Fandango?" Elina asked. "How did they do that?"

"I don't know, but I think that's what started it," Mom explained.

"In that case, we need Fandangos," she said. She whistled loudly and about ten Fandangos surrounded her.

"Nice to see you guys," she told them, "but I need you to gather around this boy and lend him your energy."

The slugs formed around me and I was soon surrounded by light.

"Will that help him?" Emma asked her.

"No. That just refills his energy," she replied. "I just need to mix together the cure."

She retreated into her cave and began mixing ingredients together and poured them into a drink so that I could drink the mixture.

"Here you go," Elina told me, walking up to us. They propped me up and she poured a liquid in my mouth. It was foul, but Luke was clamping my mouth shut to keep me from spitting it out, so I swallowed it, gagging a few times as it went down.

"He should recover within the hour," she told us. "Until then, bring him inside."

Luke picked me up and carried me inside the cave, setting me on a bed.

She gave me the drink again, and I forced myself to drink it. It was just as foul, but I didn't care as long as it made me better.

"Why did you bring so many people here?" Elina demanded of Karina.

"They are his friends, and Leo is his cousin," Mom explained.

"I know about Leo," she replied. "I want to know about the friends."

"Have you heard stories of the Five Gifted?" Mom asked her.

"Of course I do," Elina replied.

"These teenagers are four of the Five," she explained. "They are loyal to each other."

"I can tell," Elina commented, glancing toward Emma, who was still sitting next to me.

Over the next few minutes I felt the Fever disappear and my strength return. When my energy was back to normal I blinked and sat up slowly.

"'Bout took ya long enough," Luke commented as my slugs cheered and Mo and Emma tackled me in hugs.

"Why is it I'm always the one getting hurt?" I groaned.

"It's because you're always the one taking the crazy chances," Luke explained.

"Good point," I said.

"Jake, you should rest for at least twenty minutes," Elina told me. "The Fever hit you really hard."

I nodded and adjusted my bandolier so that it was more comfortable.

"Your slugs have been worried about you," Elina told me. "It is a rare and pleasant thing to see slugs and slingers treat each other as equals."

"Thanks," I replied.

"I think I have something else to raise your spirits," she added, holding out the Riviera slug she promised me years ago. "Your mother decided you are old enough, so it's all yours."

I perked up and accepted the slug from her. The sides and back of the slug are blue, its stomach is gray, and there's a swirly blue design on its stomach as well. It has two blue eyes with three dots between them and two short antenna with something like a dorsal fin on its back, in the middle of which was a darker blue spot.

"Aw!" Emma said. "It's so cute!"

"Thanks," said the slug shyly. From its voice I could tell it was a female slug.

"Good to have you on the team," I told the slug. "How do you like the name River?"

"I love it!" she cheered. I introduced her to the rest of my team and let her sit next to Speedy on my shoulder.

"That's an ultra rare slug," Mark commented, picking up River and examining her. "We couldn't even find these in the hidden cavern."

"Hey!" River growled, squirting water in his face.

"Whoa!" Mark yelled, accidentally dropping River, but I caught her.

"Sorry about that," I told her. "He tends to do that with really rare slugs."

"It's okay," she assured Mark. "You wouldn't find Riviera slugs with other slugs very much because we prefer the company of only other Riviera slugs. We can be a bit shy around others."

"Oh," Mark said. "Okay." He sat down again.

"Thank you for healing me," I told Elina. "I'm not sure what we would've done if you weren't here or we couldn't find you."

"Let's not focus on that now," she said. "I'm proud to help a member of the Five Gifted. Besides, if you couldn't find me, you could've just gone to the Shadow Clan," she added. "They know everything about anything."

"Thanks for the advice," Mom told her.

"We should get going soon," I said. "We don't want to miss our first day of classes tomorrow."

"You still have some time before you need to return," Elina told us. "I'll show you guys around the cavern, and maybe we can go slug hunting."

"Sure," Luke said. He's been desperate to expand his arsenal, but hasn't found any new slug that fit him.

We all stood up and walked out of the cave and into the jungle, where we saw all kinds of slugs, from Arachnets to Vinedrills.

"Go wild," Elina said. "Just don't hurt yourself. If you hurt any slugs of the jungle, you have me to answer to," she added, hands flickering with small flames. Oh, I forgot to mention that. She has the ability to control every slug element except Toxin.

We nodded and set off through the jungle. I was still being a bit careful so I used my staff to support myself.

"Hey, guys," I said when I wandered upon a small group of Hoverbugs. They took to the air and began flying in circles around my head. "I'm looking for slugs to join my team. Are any of you interested?"

They stopped in midair and one of them flew up and landed on my hand. "I wanna join your team!" it chirped. It was just a young one, too, but clearly ambitious.

"Great. How about I name you 'Turbo'?" I asked him.

"I love it!" he cheered, joining my slugs.

I laughed at his enthusiasm and wandered around the cavern. I encountered a Tormato slug as well and added him to my team, naming him Gale.

After about an hour I heard some explosions coming from Elina's cave, so I went as fast as I could. I was tiring out too much, though, so I fired Turbo and had him carry me to the cave as fast as he could.

"What's going on?" I asked Elina.

"Them," she said, pointing to Nacho and a couple goons firing at us.

"Oh. Them," I replied, loading Scorch.

We continued dueling for about five minutes.

"You ready for a rematch?" I asked Nacho as he ran up to me, having fired his last ghoul.

He just scowled and threw a punch at me.

I smiled and activated my powers in time to catch the punch. I threw the next punch, but he caught it.

"I heard you got hurt from the last time you did this," Nacho growled as we kept fighting.

"Yeah, and since then I've just gotten better," I muttered as I landed a punch on his jaw.

He just scowled and we kept fighting until Luke arrived.

"Take the shot!" I told him, watching him load his Rammstone, Smasher.

"Heck no," he said. He removed Smasher and loaded a Speedstinger. He took careful aim at a tree and I automatically figured out the shot.

He launched the slug, and just as he did so I shifted my position so that I could push Nacho back a few steps.

"Why, you little—" Nacho began before the Speedstinger hit him on the temple, knocking him out.

"Thanks, Luke!" I told him as we continued firing on the goons. We quickly took them out with our slugs.

"Why'd you tell me to take the shot?" Luke demanded. "I could've taken him out with my Speedstinger!"

"I didn't know you got a Speedstinger," I told him. "Besides, my energy was getting low. I couldn't have held him off any longer."

"Not a very smart idea, by the way," Elina told me as she launched Arachnets and Lariats to tie them up. "Telling him to launch the slug, even though it might hurt you."

"That's how he almost got himself killed a month ago," Luke explained. "Told Emma to launch her Armashelt to take down Nacho, even though it might kill him."

"Is that true?" Leo asked when he arrived. "Did you seriously almost get yourself killed?"

"Too many times to count," Luke chuckled. I just glared at him as he counted off every stupid thing I did over the summer, starting with letting go of a rope over fifty feet above the ground.

"Hey, I did it to win a race," I said in my support.

"Did you win?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, of course I won," I told him.

"I'm starting to believe you have a death wish," Elina commented after the tenth story about the Ice Ogre nest.

"Not really. I just like to have fun," I replied.

"Don't worry, man," Leo told me. "I probably would have done some of the same things."

"You'd be surprised to find out how much you have in common," Mom told us as she approached. "What happened here?"

"The new Doctor Blakk must have found a record of this cavern and sent some of his henchmen to try and kidnap me," Elina explained. "Jake here heard what was going on and helped me out. I'm surprised he didn't use River."

"I wanna wait for a practice duel so that it doesn't throw of a duel in a dangerous situation," I said. I had actually forgotten about River.

"Well, you need more slug energy," Mom told me, launching a Fandango at me.

"Being dependent on slug energy sucks," I commented. "I must admit, though, that the boosts are awesome," I added when the Fandango gave me a boost of energy.

"It's gonna take a while to get used to your eyes," Emma commented. I grabbed a mirror and saw that my eyes looked bright enough to be flashlights.

"I'll take care of these guys," Mom told us, hooking her Mecha up to a cart Nacho took with him. Luke and I tossed them in the back and she set of for Stalagmite 17.

"You guys should be going," Elina told us. "School starts tomorrow, and you'll want an early start on the day."

"'Kay," Mark said.

"Thanks again for healing me and giving me River," I told Elina as we walked away.

She nodded and watched us leaving. I rode with Emma on the back of her cheetah Mecha, and we went pretty fast to have more time to relax at the University.

"It's good to be back," Leo sighed when we returned to our dorm.

"So true," I commented. I jumped on my bed as my slugs scattered around my side of the room.

"How many slugs do you have with you?" Leo asked me when he saw them all.

"Thirty to forty," I replied. "I usually take some of Eli and Trixie's slugs with me so that they don't feel lonely."

"That's nice," Leo commented.

"Here, let's split them," I said, handing half of their slugs to him.

"You didn't have to do that," Leo assured me.

"Yeah, but Mom told us that Eli and Trixie wanted us to share them, so that's what I'm doing," I replied.

"Thanks," he replied.

"Anytime," I said.

The rest of the day went by fairly slowly. Leo and I got into an arm wrestling competition to see who was stronger: Leo's Shadow Clan strength or my Gift.

I won.

"G'night," I muttered that night as we crawled into bed.

The next day we began our first day of classes.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14—First Day

Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to leave one at the bottom! Sorry about the last time i posted chapter fourteen, i was in the rush and posted chapter 14 from the wrong story. I would like to thank Hills-to-Sky for lending me her OC and Jackie Winters for lending me her OC slug, the Riviera slug.

* * *

"Wake up!" Dozer, Eli's Slyren shouted that morning.

We shot up in our beds and I grabbed Dozer before he could continue speaking.

"What time is it?" Leo mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Seven," Sleepy grumbled.

"We still have an hour to get ready, but DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" I told Leo as he began to collapse on his bed again into sleep. Too late, he was already fast asleep.

"Leo, wake up!" Save repeated over and over, jumping up and down on Leo's face.

"Watch out, Save," I told him, loading Dozer. He hopped away and I fired Dozer, who let out a very loud noise to wake up Leo.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!" Leo growled as he sat up.

"We need to get ready," I told him. "Trust me, you'll be thankful I woke you up so early. It's always good to get an early start on the first day."

He just scowled at me but got dressed and ready for the day, as I did.

"Where's your fusion mod?" I asked him. He held out the double barrel mod.

I grabbed it and loaded it with energy again.

"Just like last time, you get one shot out of it," I told him.

He nodded and clipped it onto his belt as I got my things ready. I checked my schedule for the day. I had three slinging classes, a couple Blaster-Smithing courses and two Slugology classes.

"How packed is your schedule?" I asked Leo.

"Not bad. I've got four free periods," he replied.

"Nice. I've only got two free periods," I told him. "We need to get going, though. We still need to get breakfast before our first class."

We finished getting ready and walked outside, where our friends were waiting for us.

"What took you so long?" Emma asked me.

"Leo didn't want to wake up," I said.

Emma giggled for a few seconds before we left for the cafeteria, not far away.

"Even after a year, the size of this cafeteria always surprises me," Mark commented when we walked in. The place is three stories tall, and each level is huge.

"Agreed," Luke said as we grabbed trays.

We went through the line fairly quickly and managed to get our old table, along with an extra chair.

"So, ready for your first day of school?" I asked Leo as he ate a piece of bacon.

"Yep," he replied.

When we finished we split up for our classes. Luke and Emma were going to a Mecha-Engineering class, Mark was going to a Slugology course, and Leo had a slinging class. I had to go to a Blaster-Smithing class.

"See you guys later," I told them as we split up.

The nodded and we set off in different directions. My class was being taught by Mr. Mann, and it was about the history of blasters.

"Good to have you in class," Mr. Mann told me after class ended.

"Good to be in class," I replied. He's one of my favorite teachers.

The next class was an Advanced Slinging course, so Luke, Mark, Emma and I are in it together. Leo's not in it because it's an age-specific course, though.

Over the course of the day the classes gradually got better. Mom was teaching both of my slinging classes, I easily got through the Slugology course, which was about slug language. Mom also taught the course. The Blaster-Smithing classes were fairly easy, but that's mainly because it was the first day.

"How were your days?" Mom asked us after the final class, when she walked up to us.

"They were good," we replied.

"Hey, guys," Leo said as he ran up to us. "Guess what I just heard?"

"The cafeteria's getting a smoothie machine?" Mark asked. He loves smoothies.

"Not even close," Leo laughed. "The starting point of the Slug Run has been announced."

"Oh, boy," Mom muttered.

"It's starting here!" he exclaimed.

"Seriously?" I asked him.

"Oh, no," Mom warned me. "None of you will enter this contest. Leo, I promised your parents to keep you safe."

"Yeah, but you can't stop us from entering," Leo and I said, crossing our arms.

"How about we make a deal," she told us. "If you two can beat me and one person of my choosing in a duel, you can go. If we win, you don't go."

We looked at each other and grinned. "You've got yourself a deal," I told her.

She grinned a wicked grin. "If you'll excuse me, I need to call my dueling partner," she told us.

"We didn't know you'd call _her_!" we groaned thirty minutes later when Elina arrived.

"Too bad," Mom told us. "Now, let's duel."

We walked to the Arena, where a crowd was already gathered. News of what we were doing had spread, so we were going to have an audience.

"Let's do this!" an eighteen-year-old announced, taking over the role of announcer. "When I fire my Phosphoro," he added. He loaded his blaster and the crowd counted down from five to zero.

"At least we're not dueling each other," I told Leo when the crowd reached 3.

2…"Good point," Leo said as we loaded slugs.

1…

Zero! The student fired his Phosphoro and we began, firing slugs back and forth. Mom must have equipped Elina's blaster with an accelerator, because both of them were firing MegaMorphs.

"Watch your energy!" Dynamo warned me after I fired several MegaMorphs back at them.

"I'll be fine," I assured him.

We fired slugs back and forth for about ten minutes before Mom knocked away my slug with Saphira, who formed a wall of fire around me.

I just frowned and drew my fusion staff. I took careful aim before swinging, knocking Saphira off course and returning her to protoform.

"Can't take me down that easily," I told them as I loaded Burpy and Tesla. I fired them in a fusion shot that took down a few slugs, but they kept coming. Elina seemed to have an endless supply of slugs.

"It's like they know everything we will do," Leo yelled as he shot down Electro, Mom's Tazerling, with Basher, his Armashelt.

"Use me!" River chirped from my shoulder.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. She nodded so I loaded her into my regular blaster, which I retrieved, and launched her.

Her velocimorph was very dolphin-like, with three antennae and a dorsal fin. She launched out several waves of water that beat back Mom and Elina's slugs as well as disarming them.

"Good job out there!" I told River when she hopped back to me.

"Alright, you win," Mom sighed as we collected the rest of our slugs. "Even though I don't want to, a deal's a deal. You can sign up for the Slug Run."

"You guys are good duelists," Elina complimented us. "Good job with the Riviera slug, too."

"Thanks," I replied. I holstered my blasters and thanked my slugs as well for the duel.

"Where do we sign up?" Emma asked us when we emerged from the Arena.

"You can sign up online," Leo explained. "Make sure you do it soon, though. Signups end in an hour."

We nodded and pulled out our data pads and Holo-Glasses to sign up.

"Looks like this year's gonna be interesting," Mom commented as she checked out the page. "They're letting Kaiya Skye participate this year. She's a tough opponent, so look out."

"I know," I replied. I had watched videos of Kaiya's races. If her Mecha, Black Skies, weren't enough, she isn't the cleanest of racers, although Stryder would be able to handle it. I would just use crotchrocket mode and fly ahead of them. "What's the prize for this year?" I began to say before an image of they prize popped up: an albino Infernus.

"Looks cool," Leo commented.

"So true," Luke agreed.

"When _is_ the Slug Run?" Elina asked us.

"In two days, on Saturday," Emma said.

Over the course of the next two days, things were fairly uneventful, until the day of the Slug Run.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15—The Slug Run

Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to leave one at the bottom!

* * *

"When do we have to be ready for the Slug Run by?" Leo asked me that morning at breakfast.

"Ten a.m.," I told him. "Don't forget that we need to make sure to bring slugs in case things get unfriendly."

"Yep," he said. "Why are you bringing a helmet, though?"

"I plan on riding Stryder in vehicle form," I explained.

"They unlocked your vehicle mode?" Leo asked me, surprised.

"Yeah, sometime last year," I told him. "Want me to unlock yours?"

"You can do that?" he asked, eyes going wide.

"Probably," I told him. We walked over to his Mecha, Walker, and I placed my hand on the keyhole. I flooded it with energy and, sure enough, I sensed something click and a green button appeared on the screen.

"Press the button," I told him. He climbed on the Mecha's back as I stepped away. He pressed the button and Walker transformed into a dirt bike similar to Eli's.

"Impressive," Leo said, leaning the Mecha so that he was on one foot. "Thanks."

"No problem," I replied. I jumped on Stryder and we rode to the starting line. Kaiya was already there, as well as Gearhold Stalker and our friends.

"What's he doing here?" I asked Luke, looking at Gearhold.

"Must've been paid to win the slug," he suggested. I scowled but got ready.

"Oh, Leo," I added, tossing my helmet to him. "You'll need protection. It might be a bit big on you, but it should fit well enough."

"What about you?" he asked me.

I pulled an old pair of riding goggles and pulled them on after cleaning them.

Twenty minutes later everyone was there so an announcer read us the single rule: there are none.

"Aren't you kids a bit young to be doing this?" Kaiya asked us.

"Weren't you the same age when you started?" Emma replied.

"Touché," she muttered before revving her dragon Mecha's engine.

When the announcer blew his whistle we hit the throttle and took off. Kaiya took out a competitor with a sweep of Black Skies' (her Mecha's) tail.

"Eat my dust!" Emma laughed as she transformed her Mecha into vehicle form, which is like a dune buggy.

"Um…no," I said, hitting my green button then the picture of the crotchrocket.

Stryder leaped into the air as my body stretched out and wide wheels replaced his legs.

"This is speed!" I yelled as the wind flowed through my hair. I pressed a button and a thick acrylic sheet slid over my body, protecting me from the wind as well as providing a better view of my GPS screen, which showed me the route I needed to follow.

"Watch out!" Speedy chirped, alarmed as Skies' tail swung toward me. I hit the throttle and managed to get out of the way, but had to go at full speed for a few minutes in order to put a healthy distance between the Mecha and me.

"Where is this race taking us?" Speedy asked me when we left the cavern.

"Next stop is Deadweed Cavern followed by Snowdance Cavern, then Rock Lock, Cinder Rapids, Deaddrop, Chillbore, then a couple jungle caverns before we end up at the finish line/starting line," I explained.

Things were fairly easy for the next five minutes until Leo caught up to me on Walker.

"That thing is so cool!" Leo shouted at me.

I slid the top back. "Thanks!" I replied.

"Too bad you boys won't make it to the end!" Gearhold added as he loaded an Armashelt and launched it at us.

We swerved away and I launched Speedy over my shoulder, SuperMorphing him so that he could take down every slug, cause his blaster to malfunction and hit the brakes on his Mecha, launching him from his seat.

"Good job, bud," I told Speedy when he returned to me. In that time, though, Kaiya caught up with us and plowed past Leo and I, her dog, Jet, keeping pace.

"How can that thing go so fast without a vehicle mode?" I demanded as I hit the throttle and loaded the engine with energy to give it a major speed boost.

"Better watch yourself, kid," Kaiya growled at me as she pushed Skies to its limit.

"Worry about yourself," I snapped, loading Yang and firing him ahead of us, creating a thick black fog nobody could see in.

"Skies, switch to infrared vision," I heard Kaiya mutter. I frowned and slid the top over my Mecha again as I switched to heat vision.

We weaved around trees and slugs as we left the cavern and entered Snowdance Cavern.

"Don't wake any Ice Ogres this time," Burpy warned me.

"Don't worry about it," I told him. I pressed a button and spiked shot out of the wheels to give me more grip on the slick ice.

Kaiya and I went back and forth to get the lead, and I would managed to gain it for a few minutes by melting the ice then freezing it right after Skies' foot sank into the water. It wouldn't last long, though.

"Where'd Leo go?" I asked Speedy. I soon saw several blips approaching on the radar as Leo came up on one side, followed by my friends.

"What took you guys so long?" I laughed as we continued.

We reached the end of the cavern and I launched Freezer, my Frostcrawler, to seal up the entrance. A few minutes later we reached Rock Lock, but nothing significant happened there. I was almost bumped into the lava at Cinder Rapids by Gearhold, who managed to catch up with us, but I caught myself.

"How are we going to be able to cross that bridge?" Emma asked me when we were about a half mile from a small and weak bridge that spans a large canyon at Deaddrop Cavern.

"Hope for the best," I said. Kaiya noticed our hesitation, though, and destroyed the bridge when she crossed it.

"Frostcrawlers!" I yelled. We loaded Frostcrawlers and launched them, but they only spanned half the gap, so we covered the rest with Arachnet webbing. To add the finishing touch, though, Leo destroyed the bridge with Save when we were safely over.

We continued on to Chillbore Cavern, where we had to deal with another canyon, this one too big to cross with a makeshift bridge.

"We don't have the power to jump that thing!" Luke said when the chasm was in sight.

"I do!" I yelled, looking at a small red button. I swore to myself I would only use it in emergencies, but it would definitely be worth it.

I launched Freezer and Chiller again to create the biggest ice ramp I could before hitting the throttle. I pressed the red button and hid a small button as small jets appeared on either side, exponentially increasing my speed as Kaiya activated Skies' wings to allow her to fly over it.

When I hit the ramp the jets continued to burn long enough to get me halfway over the chasm before they gave out, leaving me a hundred feet above ground level and fifty feet from the other side.

"Hold on, guys!" I told my slugs when we hit the ground. "Dynamo, I need you to go full power increasing my power."

"I have a feeling you have a stupid idea on your mind," he muttered, but did it anyways as the engine gave out a whine as it lost power.

I fed the engine more and more energy. The speed boost may be awesome, but it takes a while before you can go full throttle again, unless you have an alternate power source, which I do.

Me.

"We're gonna make it!" I said as we passed Kaiya and entered the cavern before Bullseye Cavern.

When we reached the entrance to Bullseye, though, my vision flickered as my energy grew low.

"Jake!" Speedy yelled as I lost speed. My slugs jumped out and managed to take control of the controls, Dynamo and an extra Fandango I brought along working overtime to keep me conscious.

"I'm an idiot," I mumbled as we reached the finish line. Kaiya appeared from behind us, though, and flew ahead in time to reach the finish line a few dozen feet ahead of me.

"Yeah, you are," Speedy agreed when I got to a point to revert my Mecha back to Beast Mode. I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes to rest for a brief period.

"Hey, Shane," a voice snapped. I opened my eyes and saw Kaiya standing there with the albino Infernus in her hands.

"Hey. What's up?" I asked her.

"Here," she said, throwing me the slug over from Skies' back.

"Why are you giving me the slug?" I asked, confused as I hastily caught the slug.

"I have no interest in slugs," she told me. "I just did this to prove that I'm still the best. Twist was stupid enough to comment that I might be getting a little rusty. I gave him a black eye then signed up for the Slug Run. I don't want the slug, and I figured you deserve it for coming in second place. It was a good idea, using those jets, although I don't know how you were able to keep it going afterwards."

I shrugged. "I figured out a way to use the power from my fusion cores for my blasters to give enough power to make it to the finish line," I lied randomly. She raised her eyebrows but left.

"I guess you'll need a name," I told the albino Infernus. Instead of being orange and yellow, it was an orange-white and yellow-white. It was different, but kinda cute. "How does the name 'Brisingr' sound?"

"Sounds great," he chirped. He hopped onto my shoulder and fist bumped Burpy.

"Good job out there!" Mom told me as she approached with Kord and Pronto.

"Thanks," I replied. I introduced Brisingr to them and climbed off my Mecha.

"I need you guys to give me a boost," I told Dynamo and the Fandango I borrowed from the University. I loaded them in each side of my staff and fired them. They reached velocimorph and gave me a big boost of energy, enough for me to be back in top shape.

"Good job out there!" Emma said as she and the others approached.

"How'd you guys get here?" I asked them.

"We used the Frostcrawlers hanging around there to create a giant bridge," Luke explained. "It was pretty cool."

"Awesome," I replied. I was about to introduce my new slug when Arachnet webbing came out of nowhere and snatched him up.

"Hey!" I yelled. I launched Spinner in MegaMorph to attach even stronger webbing, and as I fought for Brisingr I fired Slicer to cut the other cord, allowing me to pull Brisingr to safety.

"Who's there?" I demanded. After a second of silence a Hoverbug flew by and grabbed Brisingr.

"I've got him!" Emma said as she took off, jumping off walls and climbing lampposts before tackling the Hoverbug and grabbing my slug again.

"You must really want this slug," Gearhold growled as he leaped off a building and fired Armashelts and Hop Rocks at us.

"Yeah, and I really don't want you to get your hands on it," I growled as I fired Burpy and Leo fired Save. The two slugs took down the Hop Rocks and Armashelts, but they kept coming.

"Who hired you to get this slug?" I demanded as I hit an Armashelt back at him with my staff.

"Who do you think?" he asked.

Blakk.

"Well, you can tell Blakk that the Shanes are protecting this slug," I told him, grabbing Brisingr from Emma and launching him. His velocimorph was actually blue and light blue and shot down Gearhold's slugs with a simple blast.

"Whoa, nice look!" I yelled when he returned to me and reverted back to protoform. Instead of being white again, he was blue.

"Now you know why an albino Infernus is so rare," Mom told me. "Once they're fired for the first time, they change color to blue or orange."

"Cool!" Mark said.

"Leave now, Gearhold," I said, loading Speedy. "You've lost this one."

He scowled at us, but lowered his blaster. "I know when a duel's lost," he growled before leaving on his Mecha.

"Cool slug," Kord commented when he saw Brisingr on my shoulder.

"Why do you need me, though?" Brisingr asked me. "You already have an Infernus," he added, looking at Burpy.

"I want you on my team, simple as that," I told him. "Burpy hangs out with Leo and I, so you'll still be used quite a bit."

He smiled and hopped into my bag to meat the rest of the team.

Over the course of the next few days things went back to normal again. Classes progressed as normal. Leo and I dueled a few more times, and victories were split between us. I managed to scrounge up a Vitalis crystal to power Leo's fusion mod, and equipped it with a rapid recharge system.

"Thanks, man," Leo told me when I handed him the finished product, painted to match his blaster as well.

"No problem," I replied. Of course, we had to do a practice duel to test it. It truly went to a draw, which, of course, turned into a wrestling match. I may have used my Gift to my advantage, but I won.

The next weekend I got a call to visit somebody I didn't expect.

Blakk.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16—Visiting Blakk

Thanks for the reviews!

* * *

This particular adventure began one day after school. Leo and I were headed to the Arena for _another_ duel when John Martin approached us.

"What do you want, Martin?" we demanded, loading our blasters.

"I'm not here to fight," he replied, holding up his hands, in one of which was an envelope. "I'm here to deliver a letter to the two Shane boys."

I fired Turbo, who grabbed the letter and brought it to me.

"Thanks, Turbo," I told the slug when he tossed the letter down to us. I opened it and unfolded the letter:

* * *

Dear Mr. Shane and Mr. Shane,

As you know, we have not gotten along with the best of terms. I would like to, however, invite you to a meeting with me tomorrow at noon, at your chosen location. Please respond right away by informing my associate.

Sincerely,

Leon Blakk

* * *

"I would be his associate," Martin commented when we lowered the paper. "So, are you in or out?"

"What do you think?" Leo asked me.

"I don't know," I replied. "I mean, it would be a good chance to take him down, but he has to have a motive behind this."

"Well, we only have one way to find out," Leo said.

I sighed. "Martin, tell you're boss we'll do it," I told him.

Martin grinned. "Excellent. Where would you like the meeting to be?"

"Lumino Cavern," Leo said. "Now, go tell your boss."

He scowled but left anyway to tell Blakk.

"Nobody can know about this," I told Leo as we continued to the Arena for our duel. Leo won that duel, making our score even, 3-3.

The next day Leo and I managed to sneak away in time to make it to Lumino Cavern in time for the meeting. We didn't want the others knowing, because they would stop us.

"I must admit, I'm surprised you even showed up," Blakk said when we walked into the main cavern. Nobody else was there except for Martin, who was sneering at me.

I shrugged. "Curiosity got the better of us," I told him. "I must admit, though, that I'm resisting every urge to beat the crap out of you right now."

"I understand your anger," Blakk said.

"No you don't!" Leo yelled. "You killed our parents!"

"Technically, only yours, Leonardo Shane," Blakk snapped. "And yes, I do understand what you're feeling. Eli Shane threw my father into the portal to the Deep Caverns. The journey killed him."

"That's why you're doing that?" I demanded. "Payback?"

"That's just part of it," he said. "I plan to continue my father's wishes, minus the whole Darkbane idea. I want complete control of SlugTerra, but in order to do that I need more allies."

"Let me guess," Leo said. "You want us to become your allies?"

"You're pretty smart, kid," Blakk added. "Yes, I want you as my allies. Have you ever considered what you're fighting for? Did you ever consider that I might be right in my beliefs?"

I raised my eyebrows at Blakk. "Can I ask you a question?" I replied.

"Sure."

"ARE YOU CRAZY!" I shouted. "Why would we ever join you? It is a Shane's job to protect SlugTerra, not take it over."

"I figured you'd say that," he muttered. He pulled out his blaster and loaded a Tempesto. "If you survive, tell Karina that soon I will begin targeting the University, and it will not be able to stand up against me."

His finger tightened on the trigger, but before he could launch the Tempesto to send us to the Deep Caverns, I grabbed Speedy and threw him as hard as I could, causing Blakk's blaster to miss us, launching the Tempesto in the opposite direction.

"That was a bad mistake," I said, loading Bolt to knock Martin out of commission.

Blakk just growled and we dueled back and forth, but soon more and more goons arrived until we were surrounded.

"This is not good," I growled.

"Why did you convince me to go?" Leo muttered to me as we stood back to back.

"Oh, no," I replied. "We decided on this independently."

"I know, I was doing it for our audience," he said, handing me a small disc.

"What's this?" I demanded as I hit away a Grimmstone.

"An audio bug/tracking device," Leo said. "In five seconds, a bunch of backup will arrive."

When the mental countdown reached '0', we heard yelling from the edge of the cavern as a bunch of people arrived to help.

"How did you know that?" I asked him.

"I found it yesterday, but left it there in case of emergencies," he explained. "I bet your mom planted one on you."

"I'll check later," I said, launching Brisingr to take out a few dozen goons. They were so packed that it was easy to take them down.

"I'm running low on slugs!" Leo yelled as he fired Return to take out a bunch of goons. "Return's getting tired from repeated use."

"Here!" I told him, handing over a few of mine. He grabbed the slug tubes as I fired River. She created a wave that froze, launching several ghouls back at their slingers.

"I'm out!" Leo yelled again as he fired his last slug, Save.

"Same here!" I replied after firing Burpy. "Hold on!" I added, pulling out the Shadow Walker. We used it to get to the cavern.

I pressed the button, and we teleported to where everyone else was fighting.

"Explain later!" Mom told me, handing me her Hoverbug. I fired it and it flew around the ground, collecting all of our slugs before returning.

"Thanks!" I told the slug, firing Speedy in SuperMorph. It was pretty impressive, like a pinball machine. He ended at the other side of the cavern, but I trusted that he'd find his way back as we gradually took care of the goons, knocking them out with our slugs.

"Speedy!" I shouted as we were about to leave.

There was no response.

"SPEEDY!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Help!" I heard the faint chirp from Speedy from the cavern exit.

"I'm on my way!" I yelled. I took off as fast as I could.

"Jake!" I heard Mom yell behind me. I turned around and caught the hoverboard she threw me before I took off on it, using as much energy as I dared to make it go faster.

I reached the entrance in time to see Blakk disappear with Speedy in his fist.

"Blakk!" I screamed when I reached the point he disappeared through. "I will find you, and when you do, you will pay!"

"What happened?" Emma asked me.

"Blakk happened," I said, shaking in rage. My powers were flickering on and off rapidly. "He took…he took Speedy."

"Oh, Jake," she said. "I'm so sorry."

I straightened up and clenched my hands into fists. "I will find him, even if I have to tear SlugTerra apart," I growled.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17—Missing

Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to leave one at the bottom!

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"Jake, don't let this consume you," Mom told me after I spent a week searching for Speedy. I still did my work, but spent every spare second searching for Speedy.

"I need to find Speedy," I told her. "He would do the same for me. Besides, I think I know where he is. I'll just need some help breaking him out."

She sighed. "Where is he?"

"Blakk's fortress," I replied.

"I was afraid you'd say that," she told me.

"I'm gonna break him out, even if you don't go with me," I added.

She frowned. "I know you will, so I'm going with you," she told me. "Don't forget, though, what Blakk does to the slugs he kidnaps. You may have to duel against Speedy."

I nodded. "How are we going to break into the fortress?" I asked her when we reached her office.

"We have two choices," she explained. "We can use stealth or physical power."

"Or something else," I replied, thinking back to how Eli recovered Joules when he accidentally sold him. "I pretend to want to talk, then find a way to recover Speedy once inside."

"You got that idea from one of Eli's stories, didn't you?" she asked me. "Probably one of the worst ideas you've had, but it has the highest chance of success."

"Is that a yes?" I asked her.

She took a deep breath. "Fine," she replied.

"Have you figured out a way to save Speedy yet?" Emma asked as she and the others arrived.

"Yes, but it's very dangerous," I said. "I won't be mad if you want to stay behind."

"Since when have we ever stayed out of your plans?" Luke asked us. "We're in."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"Me, too," Leo told me.

The next day we left for Blakk's fortress. It was even bigger than the one in the hidden cavern, and the wall was taller and twice as thick.

"I'll send the signal if I need backup," I told them when we were hidden from view.

"Stay safe," Emma told me, kissing me before I left. I left my fusion blaster behind, so I would have to rely on my main blaster only.

I walked up to the gate and put my face up to the camera.

"Blakk!" I shouted into the microphone. "We need to talk!"

A small screen appeared with Blakk's face on it. "Ah, you have finally arrived," he sneered.

"Let me in," I told him. "We have business to discuss."

"Leave your blaster outside," he told me. I removed my blaster and threw it into the forest behind me, where Emma was waiting to collect it just in case I had to get rid of it.

"Come on in," he said when he saw me get rid of it. The gates swung open to reveal about twenty goons aiming blasters at me. I just walked through and they guided me to Blakk's office.

"You may leave us," Blakk told the goons.

"Where is he?" I growled.

"In a place you can't reach him," he said. He casually lifted a ghoul from his bandolier. It looked like a Speedstinger, but was familiar and twisted.

Speedy.

"Medic," I whispered.

"What do you want for him?" I asked Blakk, pretending to be desperate as I worked my plan together.

"Promise to me that you will not interfere in my future plans," he told me.

"Never," I hissed.

He just chuckled and loaded ghoul-Speedy and launched him in MegaMorph. I just threw Medic into MegaMorph as well, although ghoul-Speedy took her down.

"Medic!" I yelled as she fell to the floor in protoform.

Speedy ricocheted past my head and I held out my hand a couple seconds in time for him to land in my hand.

"Don't worry, bud," I told him. "I'll get you back to normal as soon as I can."

The evil look on his face faltered for a second, the red eyes replaced for a second by Speedy's normal eyes, full of pleading before he returned to ghoul.

I placed him in a slug tube, where my slugs talked to him, trying to get the real Speedy to break out of the grasp of the Dark Water.

"Good luck getting out of here to heal it," Blakk growled at me as Nacho walked in with two other Darkbane.

I placed Medic in a slug tube and cracked my knuckles. "Bring. It. On," I told them.

"I remember you!" one of the Darkbane growled when he saw me. "You were one of the people that came to rescue the Shanes!"

"Nice to see I'm remembered," I muttered. They charged but I launched Eli's Gazzer, followed by Spooker. The Gazzer surrounded them in laughing gas, and as they laughed uncontrollably Spooker caused one to freak out, so scared that he knocked out another Darkbane before passing out himself, leaving Nacho and Blakk.

"What was that you were saying about needing luck to get out?" I asked Blakk casually.

"You forget, _boy_, that we know your biggest weakness," Nacho growled, loading a ghouled Fandango. I just call them 'Fandraingos', though. It's fitting for their power, draining slug energy.

"Oh, great," I said. I never tried it before, but I grabbed Dynamo and Medic in each hand. "I hope this works," I told them, getting ready to throw.

As Nacho launched the Fandraingo I threw my two slugs at exactly the same time, barely managing to MegaMorphing them in time to heal the Fandraingo and most of the other ghouls in the room.

"Thanks for healing me!" the Fandango chirped, hopping up to me.

"No problem," I told it.

"What can I do to help?" he asked me.

"Can you keep my energy levels high!" I asked him.

"Sure!" He jumped into a slug tube and his eyes lit up, providing a constant supply of energy.

"Thanks," I told him, throwing Brisingr to distract Blakk long enough for me to throw Yang as well, creating a cloud of darkness around him and Nacho.

"Speedy!" I heard Freezer. I looked and noticed for the first time that my energy was slowly decreasing and Speedy was gradually turning back to normal.

"Well, the Shadow Clan said I would have some healing abilities," I muttered. I focused and a nimbus of light surrounded Speedy. When it faded Speedy was back to normal.

"Speedy!" I shouted, glad to have him back to normal.

"Jake!" he replied, glad to be back. He hopped into my hand and I threw him with every last bit of strength I could muster, SuperMorphing him while dislocating my shoulder.

"AH!" I screamed in pain, clutching my shoulder.

"Focus your powers!" Medic told me. "Focus on the injury."

I did as she said and the pain receded as my shoulder popped back into place.

"Thanks, Medic," I told her, watching Speedy zoom around the room, able to alter his trajectory enough to hit both Blakk and Nacho, knocking them out.

"Let's get out of here!" I yelled, launching Turbo to gather all my slugs. When they were back with me Turbo picked me up and we flew out of there. I threw out energy blasts every time we reached a wall.

"I didn't know I could do that," I commented when I punched through a wall with a blue fist of energy.

When we reached outside Turbo ran out of energy and returned to protoform, right as Blakk's voice went over the intercom, telling all guards to attack.

"I need a bit of assistance getting out of here," I told Mom, pulling out a communicator. "I'm in the front courtyard, but don't have any of my weapons."

"We're on our way," Mom told me. I heard very faint yelling as various slugs hit the other side of the wall. I launched Toxin at the wall, followed by Scorch, Bolt, and a few other explosive slugs at the same point. It wasn't quite enough to break through, but I heard a blaster being charged right behind me.

I dove out of the way as a Harmashelt was launched at where my head used to me, instead hitting the wall and breaking through.

"Thanks for the assist!" I yelled as I ran through. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Blakk was the one who launched the Harmashelt.

"He doesn't seem happy," Emma said as I jumped onto Stryder's back and hit the throttle.

"Understatement of the year," Luke commented as we exited the cavern.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked Speedy, coming up beside us.

"Better now," he chirped. I translated for her and she sighed in relief.

"What happened after Blakk took you?" I asked Speedy.

He smiled slightly. "He tried to ghoul me once we returned to his fortress, but I gave him a run for his money. He picked me up, but I managed to slip out of his fingers. He bent over to pick me up and I took off as fast as I could."

He told us how he managed to avoid Blakk before Nacho finally cornered him and ghouled him. Even when he _was_ ghouled, he was still himself long enough to bite Blakk before the Dark Water took over.

"You're a brave little slug," I told Speedy.

"Thanks," he replied. "Thanks again for saving me."

"No problem," I said. "You're practically family."

He smiled and we continued the rest of the way to SlugTerra University, where we first went to the nurse's office.

"Hello!" the nurse told us as Mom and I walked in. "How may I help you today?"

"We just need you to look over one of our slugs, and make sure he's feeling better," Mom told her. The nurse held out her hand and I cautiously handed Speedy to her.

She took Speedy over to a scanner and had the machine scan him, recording his vital signs, checked his energy levels and other stuff I didn't know.

"He looks healthy, but his energy is a bit low," she told me, handing Speedy back to him. "I just suggest keeping him near a Fandango for a while."

"Thanks," I told her.

She nodded. "Anytime. What happened, though, that caused you to bring him to me?"

"He was ghouled," Mom said after I hesitated. "We managed to heal him and bring him back, though."

She smiled and crouched down to Speedy's level. "It's good to see you healed, then, little guys," she told Speedy. He nodded and returned to my shoulder. Yang still prefers his spot atop my beanie.

"What did the nurse say?" Leo asked me when I returned to our dorm room. Emma gave Leo my blasters, and he hung them up in my room.

"Speedy will be just fine, he just needs to refill his energy," I told him. My slugs jumped off me and onto the bed or floor, diving out of the way just in time for me to flop on the bed.

"When are we going to finally visit the famous 'Shane Hideout'?" Leo asked me. He spent his life living in just a smaller hideout, more of a safehouse than a hideout. Up to that point, he had never been to the Hideout.

"We can go tomorrow," I told him. It was only a Friday, so we would have the entire weekend to hang out.

The next day we packed up our dirty clothes and slugs and let our friends know where we were going before we set off for home.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18—Home

Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry it took me so long to update. I've been working on a new Fanfic that I hope to publish soon.

* * *

"When do you guys want to go?" Mom asked us when we were outside.

"We're all ready, so we can go right now if your want," Leo and I told her.

She nodded so we climbed on our Mechas and took off.

"What's the Hideout like?" Leo asked me as we followed about a dozen feet behind Mom.

"It's nice," I told him. "It's basically a big main room with a kitchen on the side and a bunch of bedrooms. What was the house you lived in like?"

"Similar, but smaller," he told me. "It only had two bedrooms."

I nodded and we continued for a few minutes.

"Everyone's not going to be happy it took us so long to reach a point where we could go home," Speedy commented.

"Yeah, but they'll get over it," I told him. "It _has_ been a while, though. It's a good thing Mom still stays there, or else the house would most likely be torn apart."

"Probably," Yang said from my head.

"You know, you probably shouldn't sleep so much," I told him.

"Eh, I'll survive," he muttered before passing out again.

"Does he always do that?" Leo asked me, pointing to Yang.

"Yeah. You'd think that as a former slug of the Unbeatable Master's, he would be more active," I said with a smile. I don't mind Yang sleeping. He can be good company at times and gives really good advice at times.

"Seriously? He used to be Shanai's?" Leo asked, looking closely at Yang.

"Yeah. She doesn't mind him being with me, though."

"Why did you use the present tense?" he asked me. "I thought she was dead."

We froze. Mom looked back and glared at me for a second. "We'll explain it when we get to the Hideout," she promised.

"Okay," he replied. We continued and ended up racing each other when we reached the cavern the Hideout's located in. I won by a split second.

"This place is _cool_," Leo commented as we walked in. A bunch of slugs crowded us, saying 'hello' to Leo.

"_All_ of you guys knew about Leo?" I asked in disbelief. They all nodded and continued talking about why we should've visited before, and how they had to get all their news second-hand from Mom.

"Yeah, we know we should've come home sooner, but a lot of stuff's been going on," I told them. Stuntz came over and jumped onto my shoulder next to Speedy.

"Good to see you feeling alright," Stuntz told him.

"Thanks. Good to be better," Speedy replied. They fist-bumped and Stuntz returned to his little perch on the wall.

"This'll be your room," I told Leo a couple minutes when we finished the tour, showing him a room next to mine. It was the same size but had a green color scheme. It gave me the feeling Eli and Trixie were going to introduce us one day.

"Cool," he replied. He tossed his bag on the bed and we walked back out to the main area as Mom arrived.

"Are you guys settled in?" she asked us.

"Yeah," we replied at the same time.

"Good. We should probably start moving the rest of Leo's stuff here, though," she suggested.

"Good point," Leo said. "I'll show you guys the way there."

We nodded and I grabbed my slugs before we left. You never know when you might have to duel.

Leo led us through multiple caverns and a couple Shadow Clan territories before we finally arrived at his Hideout, which was a bit smaller and set into the side of a cliff.

"This is nice," I commented when we walked in.

"Thanks," he replied. We helped him pack up his things into boxes. We barely had enough room on our Mechas to fit it all, but we managed it.

"Let's get going," Mom told us. a couple hours after we arrived, when we finished packing.

Leo stood in the doorway for about five minutes, as if he were trying to memorize every detail of the Hideout, before closing the door and locking it. We climbed onto our Mechas and set off. We had to go slower this time because of the extra weight, but still managed to make good time for traveling, only adding thirty minutes.

When we arrived at the Hideout we began unloading and unpacking boxes. I was able to carry the stuff on Stryder's cargo grate in only one trip, so I helped Mom and Leo unload their Mechas.

"Show-off," Leo muttered when I grabbed half of the stuff from his Mecha.

I chuckled and adjusted my grip on the boxes I was carrying.

We spent the next day organizing Leo's things and putting them in his room.

"Anybody home?" Emma said as she walked in Sunday morning.

"In here," I yelled from my room as I stood up from my desk. I just finished my homework for Blaster-Smithing and Slugology.

"Hey, there," she said as she walked in.

"What's up?" I replied, sitting back down in my chair and swiveling it to face her. All of this happened within a couple seconds.

"Not much," she said, sitting on the edge of my bed. "How about you?"

"Not much," I replied. "Mom and I moved Leo's stuff from his Hideout to his new room here."

"Oh, that's good," she commented.

"Yep," I said. "How's your day been?"

She shrugged. "You?"

"Better now," I told her. She smiled and I went over to sit next to her. "So…what do you want to do today? I hear there's a good movie showing in Snowdance Cavern."

"Sounds good," she replied.

"Let's go," I said. We got up and started to walk out.

"Where are you guys going?" Mom asked us when we reached the door.

"Oh, just to see a movie," I replied.

"Why don't you take Leo with you?" she said. "He hasn't gotten out very much."

"Sure," Emma said. My face flickered into a frown for a split second as Leo walked out. I didn't have anything against Leo, but I wanted to have some time with Emma without everyone else.

"I've never been to the movies at Snowdance Cavern," Leo commented.

"Cool," I said. "Let's get going, then."

We got on our Mechas and rode them to Snowdance Cavern to see the movie.

When we arrived we bought some sodas and popcorn and parked our Mechas in a good spot to watch the movie. I laid out a blanket between Emma's Mecha and mine and we got comfortable to watch the movies, resting our backs against my Mecha as we sat side-by-side.

"Couples," Leo snorted as he pressed a button to pop up a chair back for him to sit against. I just rolled my eyes and got comfortable.

"I didn't think you'd want to go to a movie like this," Emma told me about five minutes after the movie started. It was a really sappy romance movie.

I shrugged. "I knew you liked these kinds of movies," I told her honestly before eating some more popcorn.

She smiled and leaned her head on my shoulder. "I kinda feel bad for Leo," she said. "He's probably bored out of his mind."

I looked over and him and almost burst out laughing. Leo was already passed out on his Mecha.

"He fell asleep," I told her. She giggled but quieted when the movie got to a good part. I barely paid attention to the movie. I was too busy focusing on the beautiful woman next to me.

"That was such a good movie," she commented when it ended. She cried a few times during it, but don't tell her I said that. She'd hurt me.

"Yeah," I replied. I walked over to Leo and held out Dozer. "Do your stuff," I told him. He winked at me and let out a noise like a siren.

"What!" he demanded, reaching for his blaster. He was too drowsy, though, and accidentally fell off of his Mecha's back.

"Movie's over," I told him, helping him up.

"You knew it was a romance, wasn't it?" he demanded, brushing ice flakes out of his hair.

"Yep," I replied.

"Yet you didn't say anything to your Mom about it?"

"Nope."

"WHY?" he demanded.

"She wouldn't have believed me," I told her. "She would've thought I was just trying to get rid of you."

"Good point," he replied. I folded up the blanket and we climbed on our Mechas.

Right before we left Snowdance Cavern, I got a call from Mom marked 'URGENT'.

"What's wrong?" I asked her once I accepted the call, sliding my Glasses in front of my face and turning on the earpieces and microphone.

"Where are you?" came Mom's panicked response. I could hear blaster fire in the background.

"We're about to go to the Hideout from Snowdance," I told her.

"Good. Go there and take all the slugs, then go to the University and have your friends meet you there with any backup they can get," she said.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"Blakk's attacking SU, and he's brought Gatlers," she replied before the call went to static.

"Come on!" I told Emma and Leo, hitting the throttle and going into vehicle mode. The others followed and we arrived at the Hideout in record time.

"I need everyone to come with us!" I shouted when we walked into the Hideout.

"What's going on?" Leo and Emma demanded as I raced upstairs to grab mods and attach them to my regular blaster.

"SU's under attack," I told them.

They nodded and I handed them extra mods. I tossed a bat to Leo as we ran out with slugs all over our bodies and Mechas.

"What's the bat for?" he asked me.

"Dealing with Grimmstones," I told him. "I usually use my staff, and since you have extra strength you can probably knock a few ghouls down."

He nodded and we began calling our friends and allies to get them to go. Mark and Luke left once they heard. Luke was bringing his dad, and Mark was bringing a few slingers from his cavern. Elina also agreed to go, along with some of Leo and Emma's friends and allies.

"Get ready," I told them when we reached Bullseye Cavern. All of our friends were there as well. "Charge!"

As we charged our Mechas into the cavern, we were charging into chaos.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19—Chaos

Thanks for the reviews!

* * *

When we charged into the cavern we were immediately surrounded by exploding Greneaters and Hop Jacks. I smiled when I saw Leo hitting the slugs away with the bat, but a well-aimed Thrasher cut it in half so he had to abandon it and launched his own slugs back.

"Find the others!" I told Turbo before loading and launching him toward the University. He nodded and took off as fast as he could once reaching velocimorph.

When we reached the line of goons I started swinging my staff at them, knocking several out of commission. Emma took down a few goons with Flare, her Flaringo, as Luke grabbed a velocimorphed Grimmstone and threw it at one of the several Gatlers launching slugs at the University. If they turned their aim on us, we would be done for.

"Leo!" I shouted as Grimmstones were launched from all sides at him. Before he could so much as flinch, though, a large black Mecha swung its tail, deflecting them all.

"Jacob!" Kaiya yelled as she used a small dart gun to destroy a blaster core. "I got Twist's message!"

"Thanks!" I replied. She nodded and swung Skies' tail to take out another dozen goons before disappearing in the sea of Mechas, most of them the enemy's.

I continued on, and a few minutes later Turbo returned to me.

"Where are they?" I asked him.

"Far end of the cavern," he said when he landed on my shoulder. "She's cornered with the rest of the professors in one of the maintenance buildings."

"Thanks," I replied. "Kaiya!" I yelled.

"What is it?" she asked as she approached.

"I need you to help me get to my mom and the other professors," I told her. "They're at the far end of the cavern."

She nodded and I called my friends to go with me.

"We need to take out the Gatlers first," Kaiya told me. "They'll tear us apart before we can get close."

I nodded and we fired a few fusion shots. I managed to use Speedy and Stuntz to take out a couple Gatlers by having them crack the huge fusion cores powering them.

"The last one was just taken out!" Emma told me after we launched Hoverbugs to gather our slugs.

"Let's go!" Kaiya yelled. "Stick close to me and don't fall back!"

We nodded and took off. She went a bit slower so that we wouldn't have to strain our engines, but we were still able to get to the other side in good time. Leo and I were on either side of her, helping to force the goons away.

"This is it!" Turbo chirped from my bandolier when we reached a building under heavy fire. It must have been very well fortified, though, because it was withstanding fire from a couple more Gatlers and MegaMorph slingers.

"Thanks, Kaiya!" I yelled. She nodded and went to town trashing Mechas to help us.

"I want that building taken down!" I heard someone yell from a tank nearby. I looked over and saw Blakk standing there, manning one of the Gatlers.

"Take out the Gatler, but not Blakk," I told Stuntz as I loaded him. The shot needed an experienced slug, and he was better than Speedy (no offense, Speedy). I took careful aim and launched him. He ricocheted over and over, using heads as points to get to the Gatler, managing to completely shatter the core before bouncing back to me, taking out another ten to twenty goons.

"Good job," I told him. We continued to attack the attackers, having to MegaMorph our slugs except for Leo. I hadn't hooked his blaster with an accelerator, but he still had some powerful slugs with him. I even saw Save take down a couple MegaMorphed Grimmstones.

"I wondered how long it would take you to get here," I heard Blakk say as he approached with two Darkbane on each side. Fighting immediately ceased and the goons parted to let them through.

"What do you want with us?" I demanded.

"I just need you, Jacob, and you, Leo, to draw out Karina," he said. "You see, she won't ever give up unless I give her a reason to, such as holding her only family at gunpoint for her to see."

"Good luck with that," we told him. He raised his hand and every goon aimed his or her blaster at us.

"Well, you don't really have much of a choice," he said. "Either you go with me quietly, or we will make sure you will never be able to duel again, much less do anything else."

"I repeat, good luck with that," I added as we began slowly moving our Mechas together. As he closed his hand into a fist our Mechas touched each other and Leo and I activated our Shadow Walkers.

"That was too close for comfort," Leo said when we arrived in front of the building. We raced in and reinforced the doors with ice.

"Jacob?" someone said from behind me.

I spun around and saw Kord standing there.

"Hey there, Kord," I told him. "Where's my mom?"

His face fell. "It would be better to show you," he told me, turning and walking away. I climbed off Stryder and took off after him, getting Medic ready just in case.

We arrived soon after in the break room, where a person was placed on a table.

Mom.

"Mom!" I shouted, running over to her. She looked really pale, but I could feel a pulse.

"What happened?" I asked Kord.

"I don't know," he admitted. "We were running inside the building to take cover, and had barely closed the doors when she collapsed."

* * *

**About two hours ago, Karina's POV…**

"We need to find cover!" I shouted to Kord as I fired Saphira to push back the line of advancing goons. Where does Leon find so many recruits?

"In here!" Michael Mann yelled when we were backed up against one of the buildings for maintenance workers. They had all been knocked unconscious hours ago.

Kord and I continued pushing the line back, and right before we reached the door I felt something hit my leg, but ignored the pain as I heard new blaster fire in the distance.

"My son," I gasped. We ran in, and as Kord closed the doors I looked down to my leg where it was hit and saw a couple Dirt Urchin spines embedded in my leg. I pulled them out, but the pain combined with blood loss caused me to pass out.

"Karina!" I heard Kord yell when I hit the ground. He picked me up and I felt us travel through the building before he set me down on an open table. The wound was on the back of my leg, and he was too afraid to move me in case he hurt me further, so I laid there passing between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Two hours later, I was knocked into consciousness when doors were flung open. I heard somebody run over to me, probably Kord to check on me, but then I heard Jacob's voice.

"Mom!" he yelled. "What happened?"

I tried to open my eyelids, but couldn't. I was too tired. Right then, I faded completely into darkness before a bright light lit up my mind.

"Open your eyes," I heard a voice say. I hadn't heard that voice since before Jacob died, so I knew it must have been a dream or hallucination.

"Jacob?" I whispered as I opened my eyes. He was standing in front of me, dressed completely in white. Wow, I forgot how much he looks like Jacob. They share the same colored eyes and hair, minus the blue ring in my son's eyes.

He smiled. "It has been a while," he said. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to visit you this soon, especially when I had to visit my own son for the first time on his deathbed."

"He has the Shane recklessness," I told him. "Told someone to take a shot that almost killed him but took out an enemy."

He laughed. God, I missed that laugh. "The boy confuses bravery with overconfidence," he said. "He gets it from my side of the family, too. Remember the Snowdance races?"

I burst out laughing. "He tried that, but ended up waking up an entire nest of Ice Ogres. The look on his face when I saved their butts was priceless."

He smiled again and put his hands around my face. "I have missed you," he said sadly.

I nodded. "I've missed you, too. I wish the thugs didn't have to take you away from me so early, right before Jacob was born."

He wiped away a tear from my face. "Have you told him my last name?" he asked me.

"Not yet," I told him.

"You need to do it," he said. "He can't live the rest of his life without knowing the truth of his first adopted parents."

I nodded and looked around. Everything was white, and the light made it look almost eerie. "Where is this?" I asked him.

"Honestly, I don't know the name of this place," he told me. "It is where people go when they are on death's doorstep. Our son was here when he almost died."

"He saw you?" I asked him.

"Yes."

I smiled. "Good. Even though it wasn't the way I wanted it, I'm glad he met his father."

He nodded. "Now, you need to make a decision," he said, stepping back from me and removing his hands. He held up his hands and two orbs appeared. In the orb in his left hand, pictures of Eli, Trixie, Will, and countless family members that had passed appeared. In the other was a video of my son examining me for any injuries. He found the wound and managed to heal me, but I wouldn't wake up yet. To be honest, I desperately wanted to stay with Jake, my husband and love. Another part of me hated the part that wanted it. I should put my son first, I always have before. I put him up for adoption to protect him from my enemies, convinced my brother and Trixie to adopt him, even though they were going through a tough time with Leo's accident at the Dark Water drill. I did everything and anything I could to make sure he lived a good life. Bad luck just seemed to surround him. He lost his father before he was even born, lost all of his adopted parents, and could potentially lose his mother.

"I'm sorry," I told my husband as I placed my hand on the orb with life. As I did my eyes shot open to look into a pair of eyes that looked almost exactly like the ones I was just staring into except for the blue ring.

* * *

**Back in Jacob's POV...**

"Mom!" I yelled in surprise when she opened her eyes. I found the wound surprisingly quick and healed it with no problems, but she stayed unconscious for about a minute longer before her eyes opened. In the reflection from her eyes I saw someone that looked like me, but didn't.

"I just…" she began as she sat up.

I leaned over to help support her. "I know," I told her. "You saw Dad, didn't you?"

She nodded and hugged me before an explosion shook the building.

"We need to do something," Mr. Mann told us. "They're about to break past the protection."

I nodded. "Leo, can I borrow Save?" I asked Leo. He raised his eyebrows but handed the slug to me. I wasn't sure if the shot would work, but it was our only chance. We were greatly outnumbered.

"Leo, can you call the Shadow Clan here to help?" I added as I loaded Save and Burpy into my fusion blaster. I would've used Brisingr, but Burpy is stronger and more experienced.

"Next time, bud," I told Brisingr.

"I can call them," Leo told me.

"Do it," I replied. He nodded and closed his eyes. I got my blaster ready and took aim just as the doors burst in.

"Give this everything you've got," I told the slugs as I poured every last ounce of excess energy into them. They nodded and I fired them before the first goon could enter. I can only think of one word to describe the fusion shot.

_AWESOME._

The two slugs SuperMorphed and fused to create a slug similar to a Pulter slug's velocimorph, but all the green was replaced by bright orange as green flames poured out from the slug, driving all the goons, Blakk, and Darkbane back several hundred yards.

"The cavalry's here!" Leo yelled as numerous Shadow Clan surrounded us. They hissed at the goons, and that alone caused all of them to scatter, leaving Blakk alone with a dozen Darkbane.

I walked toward them and loaded Brisingr and Tesla, launching them into a fusion shot to take out half the Darkbane. The Shadow Clan took them all away, probably to the portal to kick them back to the Deep Caverns.

"I've been waiting a long time to do this, Blakk," I growled. He began to panic and took off, but I fired Burpy again to create a wall of flames, trapping him.

"Jacob, wait," Leo said behind me as I was about to punch him. I was about to ignore him when he walked up to me and got ready to hit, removing his arm sleeve to allow him better movement. "Together," he said. I smiled and nodded. We swung and caught him with a giant uppercut, launching him into the air and probably shattering his jaw.

"Put him in a prison so deep nobody will ever find him," I told the Shadow Clan members when they approached. "He doesn't deserve the mercy of death."

They nodded and took him away.

"How did you know the fusion shot would work?" Save asked me from Leo's shoulder.

"I don't know," I replied. "The idea just appeared in my head."

"Thank you," somebody said behind us. We turned and Leo hastily put his arm sleeve back on as Tobias, head of the University, approached. One of his arms was in a sling and the other had an anti-gravity gauntlet on it.

"No problem," I replied. "We were just doing our job."

"No, what you did today was beyond the call of duty," he told us. "What you did proved the two of you as being among the greatest Shanes that SlugTerra ever had."

"Thanks," we replied. "We couldn't do it without our friends, though," we added as Luke, Mark, and Emma approached. Emma ran over and leaped into my arms.

"Does this mean we won?" she asked me.

"No, it doesn't," Leo said. "Blakk will find a way to escape his prison. He always has before. It doesn't matter where he is. He is slippery, just like his father. I can assure you now that those twelve weren't all of the Darkbane he had with him. He probably had more at his fortress."

"You are correct, Leonardo," one of the Shadow Clan told him. "When we removed the Darkbane at this cavern, one of them tried to intimidate us by stating that a great Darkbane has entered this land and will destroy it."

"You don't think…?" he said.

"Unfortunately, your assumption is true," it said. "Brimstone has arrived in SlugTerra, and he seeks to destroy it. The worst is yet to come."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20—Yet To Come

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* * *

"What?" I asked. "You mean, he's _here_? As in, _SlugTerra_?"

"Yeah," Leo said. "I thought you understood Shadow Clan language?"

"I do, but this is a lot to process," I replied. "I've only heard of him from Eli and Trixie's stories. I never thought he'd actually be here in SlugTerra."

"Blakk must have created a portal powerful enough to transport Brimstone and some of his soldiers here," one of the Shadow Clan told us. "Be careful when you face him," it added. "These soldiers are stronger than Diablos Nacho, and Brimstone stronger than the soldiers. You will need to gain strength before you can hope to defeat them in combat"

We all nodded.

"Keep your amulets with you at all times," the Shadow Clan hissed. "They allow you to call the Shadow Clan in a time of need, so as long as you have them you will be able to get out of situations. This will help you when you need it most."

"Thanks you again for helping us," we told the Shadow Clan. They nodded and they left.

"What does this mean we do now?" Emma asked me.

"We need to train," I told her.

"How?" Mark asked us.

"That…is an excellent question," I told him.

"In other words, you have no idea," Luke said.

"Simple," Leo told us. "You do exercises that test your Gifts. For Jake and Luke, you'd lift a bunch of weights or something. For Emma, you'd try to keep improving your speed by beating your time every time you run. For Mark, keep testing your intellect."

"Yeah, that's what I was about to say," I said. Leo and Save just rolled their eyes.

"You can work on that while the University is reconstructed," Mom said as she walked up to us. She was walking with barely a limp, but I could tell she was in pain by the small wince at the corner of her eye every time she took a step.

"You should be resting," I told her, walking over to her side after setting Emma down.

"I'll be fine," she snapped, shrugging off my hand as I tried to help her. She turned back to us. "After today, we will have to recruit some Security Slingers to protect the University, and many parts will have to be rebuilt. The residence halls received no damage, but the rest did. They were just targeting the teaching and administration buildings. There will be no classes until it can all be completed. During that time I suggest you train. I even know of a cavern you can train without being seen."

"Where's that?" Leo asked her.

"It's a fairly large cavern, but you have to travel through Shadow Clan territory to get there," she explained. "I'm sure the guardians of that caverns will be willing to help you train. One of them is the best slinger ever."

"But I don't live there," I joked. She glared at me and I chuckled.

"Who lives there?" Leo asked us.

"We'll introduce you when we get there," I told him. Everyone else that fought with us arrived then.

"What happened?" Elina asked us. "We were fighting when they all fled."

"The Shadow Clan arrived," Leo explained. "They scared the goons and took away the Darkbane and Blakk."

She nodded. "Good," she replied.

Leo was right about to mention Brimstone when I nudged him and subtly shook my head. He narrowed his eyes for a second but understood.

"Thank you all for coming to the University's aid," Tobias said, walking into the midst of all of us. We silenced immediately. "You have done a great service to SlugTerra, and we will be in your debt."

The group nodded and gathered their slugs and left. Kaiya must have left right after the battle ended, because she was nowhere to be seen.

"I suggest you get some rest tonight," Mom told us. "I'm going to send you guys to the cavern tomorrow morning. It's a long journey, so I suggest you pack up and be ready to stay there for a while. It'll be easier if you stay there the entire time."

We nodded and left for our homes.

"Is Aunt Karina sending me with you guys?" Leo asked me when we got back home.

"Maybe," I replied. "I've never seen her this bad."

"What do you mean?" he asked me. "Never seen her this what?"

"Angry," I said. "I've seen her angry, but never this angry."

"I never would have guessed that she was mad," he said. "She looked really calm."

"Exactly," I told him. "With her, the calmer she seems in situations like this, the angrier she is."

"What about when you got grounded?" he asked me. "According to you, she absolutely freaked out."

"That was more of her being worried," I explained. "Her emotions are confusing. It took me years just to scratch the surface of how to interpret her body language. Here's a tip: never play poker against her. Her poker face is unreadable."

He nodded and smiled slightly as I went to my room to pack clothes in a duffle along with some camping gear. I didn't know if we would be sleeping outside or in Shanai or Red Hook's houses. I figured we wouldn't, though, since each consisted of two rooms.

"Why are you bringing a hammock?" Leo asked me when he saw the small bundle.

"Something to sleep on," I told him. "I love sleeping in hammocks, and I'm sure there'll be trees close enough together for me to attach it to."

"Oh," he replied.

"Are you guys all packed up?" Mom asked about an hour later when she returned.

"We?" Leo asked.

"Yes, as in both of you are going for training," Mom told us. "I suggest you pack enough clothes for several days along with some extra food."

"Okay," he replied. We went up to his room and I finished the last of my packing, sticking a large container of slug food in the top along with a package of extra slug tubes just in case I might need them.

"What mods should I bring?" I asked Mom when she came into my room to check how I was doing.

"I don't know. Where _are_ all of your mods?" she asked me.

"At the University," I told her. "I plan on stopping by my dorm and picking up a few more things."

"Sorry, but I don't know," she replied. She walked over and sat on the bed next to me. "When I was injured, something happened…" she began. "I had a strange vision."

"You saw Dad, didn't you?" I said, thinking back to when I went into the coma.

She nodded, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, I did," she told me. "There's something you need to know about him. It's about his last name."

"What is it?" I asked her.

"His last name was…Taylor," she said, checking my reaction.

"Taylor, as in…?" I replied, the untold question hanging in the air.

"Yes," she told me. "The couple that adopted you was actually your aunt and uncle," she explained. "I knew they would take care of you and keep your secret."

I closed my eyes and focused on my powers. "So they weren't my real parents, but I was still related to them?" I asked her.

"Exactly," she replied. "I thought you should know that, but hadn't worked up the courage to tell you. I know I should have told you the truth, but I'm better at keeping secrets than telling them."

I nodded and clenched and unclenched my hands over and over. The thugs that killed them were lucky I couldn't get my hands on them. They killed my aunt and uncle.

She placed a hand on my shoulder. "Jacob, don't think that way," she told me, as if she knew what I was thinking.

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" I asked her.

"Because that's how I'd be thinking," she said. "I'd want revenge. Show that you are above succumbing to your feelings. Courage is not knowing when to attack, but when not to attack."

I clenched my jaw but nodded, using a calming technique she taught me to reign in my anger.

"Here," she added, pressing a small item into my hands. I opened my eyes and saw a small pocketknife.

"It used to be your father's," she said. I unfolded the blade and saw the letters 'JT' engraved into the blade, for Jacob Taylor. "He would've wanted you to have it," she told me.

I nodded and folded the blade back. "Thank you," I replied. "Are my father's parents still alive?"

She shook her head slowly. "They died in a Mecha crash," she explained.

I sighed and placed the knife on the nightstand.

"I'll go check on Leo," she said, standing up suddenly. I looked up and saw tears beginning to form, but they disappeared as she walked out.

The next morning I got up earlier than we needed to be so that I could make a quick run to my dorm back at the University with Leo to pick up anything extra we wanted, like extra clothes and mods.

"You two certainly got up early," a voice said behind us. We spun around and saw Mom in the doorway.

"Why do you always have to do that?" I demanded when we left. She just laughed and jumped on her Mecha.

"She does that a lot?" Leo asked me.

"Yeah. Some days I want to attach a bell to her shirt so that she can't sneak up behind me," I told him. He laughed as well and we went back to the Hideout, where the others were waiting for us.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Mark asked us when they saw us.

"Yeah," Leo and I replied.

"I'll call you guys when the University is finished with repairs," she told us. "Don't be surprised if I stop in once or twice!" she yelled as we took off, bags strapped to all of our Mechas.

As we traveled Leo continued to pester us to tell him about the people who live in the cavern, but we stayed silent to keep it a surprise.

"Is this Dark Periphery Cavern?" Leo asked us when we arrived in Shadow Clan territory.

"Yes, it is," I replied as a couple dozen Shadow Clan materialized around us.

"State your business," one of them hissed.

"We wish for safe travel through this cavern," Leo and I said. "We seek to train with the guardians of the hidden cavern."

Their eyes widened as they recognized us and moved aside. "You may pass," they said as we traveled through the cavern.

"Is this it?" Leo asked me when we arrived at the forcefield protecting the entrance.

"Yep," I replied. "It will allow us to pass through."

"Cool," he said when he noticed the few Guardian Fandangos hopping around on either side of the forcefield.

"Yeah. Let's go," Luke said as we walked through the barrier and into the cavern to begin our training.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21—Arriving at the Cavern

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* * *

"Whoa," Leo gasped when he could look around.

"Yeah," I said simply. "It's awesome."

For those of you who don't remember, the hidden cavern is huge. It has a lake, forest, meadows, and a lot of caves lining one side of the cavern. On the edge of the forest were two houses.

"Who lives there?" he asked us, pointing to the houses.

"The guardians," I told him. "Come on, we'll introduce you."

We traveled over to the houses and I started by knocking on Shanai's door.

"Hello?" I said when the door didn't open. "Is anybody home?"

"The person who lives here wasn't here, but is here now," an old voice said behind us. We spun around and saw Shanai walking up to the door.

"It is good to see you again," we told her, bowing our heads out of respect.

"Who's this?" Leo asked, clearly confused by her sudden appearance.

"Leo Shane, meet Shanai, the Unbeatable Master," I told him. "Shanai, this is Leo Shane, Eli and Trixie's son.

"Leo, eh?" Shanai said, looking at Leo. "Karina told me about you the last time we spoke."

"It's an honor to meet you," Leo said, eyes wide. It was similar to how I reacted to meeting her. She was said to be the greatest slinger of all time, before Blakk 'killed' her.

"Why are you five here?" she asked us.

"We were sent here to train safely," Emma explained. "The University was attacked yesterday, so we need to be ready for the next one. Ms. Shane sent us here."

"Karina? She was right. You are welcome to train here," Shanai told us. "We don't have extra beds, though, so you'll need to find other places to sleep."

"Of course," I said.

She nodded and walked inside her home. "I suggest you introduce Leo to my grumpy neighbor before he comes out demanding why so many people are here," she added before closing the door.

"Let's introduce you to her neighbor, then," I said. We walked over to Red Hook's house and I knocked on the door repeatedly.

"Why do you always knock?" I heard him yell.

"There's no bell out here!" I yelled back. There was a pause before the door was flung open to reveal Red Hook, red hook and all.

"You're back," he said.

"Yes. We are here to train, but first I want to introduce you to my cousin, Leo," I told him, ushering Leo forward.

"So there's another Shane?" he demanded.

"Well, yeah," I told him. "Shanai thought it would be best if we introduced him before you come out yelling at us."

"Can't deny that," he grumbled. "Okay, then, you can stay. Begin training at any time you want. Oh, and try not to bother me too much."

"Thank you," we replied. He just scowled and closed the door.

"Was he always like that?" Leo asked us.

"Yeah," I said simply. "We should get some rest, though. It's getting late," I added, looking at the clock on my Glasses.

"Sure," Mark said, yawning widely.

"First, let's show Leo around the cavern," Emma suggested.

"Sure. I'll go," I said. We showed Leo around the cavern and watched his jaw drop every time he saw a really rare slug in a group of other rare slugs.

"Whoa," I heard him gasp. "How many slugs are here?"

"Roughly twenty, not including the herd of Fandangos that keeps this place alive," I told him, pulling up the correct data. "About half of the species are considered very rare."

"Not anymore," he mumbled.

"Actually, they're still considered very rare," Emma told him. "After we recorded everything about the cavern we locked it away in SU archives under very heavy computer protection. With the Shadow Clan protecting the entrance as well, it makes it very hard to get into this cavern unless you have connections with the Clan, like we do."

"Oh, cool," he commented as he waved to an Enigmo slug. It waved back but lost its balance and fell on top of a Forgesmelter. We chuckled but continued to the lake.

"Is this where you found your Riviera slug?" Leo asked me, motioning to the lake.

"No," River told him. "We don't like to stay around other slugs. We prefer only the company of other Riviera slugs."

"Oh," Leo said. As we walked over to the caves he looked at them in awe. "Are these the caves you jumped from?" he asked me.

"Yep," I replied.

He shook his head slowly. "You can have some really stupid ideas sometimes," he told me.

"_Now_ you tell me," I said sarcastically. They laughed as we made our way back to where the others set up camp.

"Where's your sleeping bag?" Emma asked me when I pulled out the hammock.

"I didn't bring one," I told her. I started to set up the hammock, but Stinger and Spinner chirped to me not to.

"What do you guys suggest, then?" I asked them, even though I knew the answer while I put away the hammock.

"Launch us and find out," Stinger told us.

I laughed and loaded him before launching him at the trees. The slug flew back and forth between the trees, forming a very well padded hammock that hung between the trees.

"Good idea, guys," I told them before grabbing my blanket and jumping onto the hammock. It flexed beneath my weight but held firmly.

My slugs just chirped and ducked as another Arachnet was fired at the trees next to me. Another hammock was formed that Emma jumped onto.

"Copy-cat," I murmured as I hung my hand off the edge of the hammock.

"I love you, too," she said as she dangler her hand as well, holding on to mine.

I fell asleep with a smile that night.

"Wake up!" I heard the next morning before water was squirted into my face. I sat up suddenly, sputtering as I tried to get the water out of my nose.

"Well, I _told_ you to wake up," River told me as Speedy burst out laughing.

"Yeah, well, next time don't almost drown me," I told her as I rubbed the water out of my eyes. Speedy kept laughing so I threw him into the forest. He velocimorphed, though, and ricocheted back to me.

"What time is it, anyways?" I groaned when I noticed that nobody else was awake.

"Check your clock," Yang told me sleepily. I looked at the screen on my glasses and noticed that it was only three in the morning.

"Why did you wake me up?" I demanded.

"She told us to," Speedy said, pointing to a figure at the edge of the forest line.

I couldn't see the person's details, but recognized the hood as Shanai's.

"You guys stay here," I told them. "Speedy, Yang, you're with me."

They nodded and jumped on my shoulder as I grabbed my staff and walked over to the figure.

"Follow me," the person told me, turning around and walking into the forest. She sounded like Shanai, but her albino Boon Doc, Ping, verified her identity.

"Where are we going?" I demanded, trying to follow her through the jungle.

"Quiet," she said. We kept going until we reached the wall of caves. We walked into the smallest one at ground level, which was barely more than a crack, and when we got to the back of the cave she placed her hand in a deep depressing and turned some kind of lever.

"What's going on?" I demanded, but Ping waved at me to be quiet as a rumbling vibrated around the cave as a large rock on our left side slid out of the way to reveal…a hidden passage!


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22—A Hidden Passage

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* * *

"Leave all weapons here," she told me, leaning her staff against the wall. I raised my eyebrows at her but left my staff in the same place. "Do you have any other slugs with you?" she asked me.

"No," I replied.

"Can you trust those slugs to keep a secret?" she added.

"I'd trust them with my life," I snapped. Speedy and Yang chirped to prove my point.

She nodded. "Good. Now, follow me," she added. She led me through the passage, which wound on for seemingly forever.

"Where are we going?" I demanded.

"I'll explain when we arrive," she said, not turning to look at me. I was about to repeat my question when Yang hushed me.

We continued walking for about ten more minutes before the passage ended in a large room. Embedded in the walls were hundreds of small Lumino Crystals. I even saw a few large Vitalis Crystals. My attention was diverted from it, though, by a podium in the middle. Embedded into the top of the podium was a giant crystal.

The crystal was shaped like a five-sided prism. Each side emitted a different color. One was blue, one was green, one was yellow, one was orange, and the last was red.

"What is this?" I whispered. It felt like the crystal was pulling at me.

"It is the Gift," she said. "Have you heard the story about the origin of our Gifts?"

"No. I just heard the story about us," I told her.

"Several hundred years ago, five people found a crystal," she said. "They each toughed it and Gifts were bestowed upon them. Two of them had immense strength. One had intelligence greater than anybody else's. Another was the fastest being ever to run the 99 Caverns. The final one created and controlled technology only with his mind. With these powers, the five people helped the Shadow Clan defeat the Darkbane and restore peace to the 99 Caverns. After a couple years of peace, a group tried to steal the Gift, as the Gifted called the crystal, but the Gifted stopped them. They realized, though, that the Gift needed to be hidden somewhere that it wouldn't be found. Working together with the Shadow Clan, they found an uninhabited cavern where the only entrance is guarded by Shadow Clan. They relocated endangered slug species there and created a hidden room that only one person in each future generation of Gifted may know of. This is the Gift. This cavern is the one from the story. You are to be the person of the newest generation to know of this crystal. You may not tell anybody else of this crystal, or else you will forget all about it before you have the chance."

"Whoa," I said, surprised by it all. "But, why are you choosing me?" I asked her. "Why not Luke or one of the others?"

"They look to you as their leader," she told me. "You seem to have taken up the position quite well. You are the trustworthiest of the group. I was chosen for this one hundred years ago, and I pass this knowledge on to you. This also means that you will be one of the ones to live long enough to pass on the knowledge to the next generation. It is a big burden, but it must be carried. Will you be the one to carry this burden, Jacob Taylor Shane?" she asked me, using my full name.

"I guess so," I said.

"Close enough. Now, place your hands upon the crystal to seal the passage of this knowledge," she told me.

I hesitantly walked over to the crystal and slowly lowered my hands until they were a fraction of an inch from touching the crystal. I could feel the power emanating from it.

"Speedy, Yang," I heard Shanai whisper. I felt them jump from my shoulder and head and land on my hands, forcing them onto the crystal.

The first thing I felt was pain. It felt like lightning was coursing through my body, and Speedy and Yang were different. Yang became a darker black and the silver streak on Speedy's back flared up with light.

"Ah!" I yelled. After a couple seconds the pain was gone. Instead I could still feel the power in my body, but it didn't hurt. If I had a mirror I would've seen my eyes light up like lightbulbs, but as it was I could see the light from my eyes gleaming on the walls.

"What's happening to me?" I yelled at Shanai.

"The information is being imprinted in your mind," she told me. "Because of this, you will never be able to forget it unless you break your promise to never tell another person, even another Gifted."

I grimaced as pain shot through my body again. It didn't last as long, though, and after that it disappeared completely, along with the power.

"It is done," she said, removing my hands. My slugs returned to their spots as we walked out.

"What else did the crystal do to me?" I asked her. "I feel…different."

"You have a stronger tie with the Gift," she told me. "You will always know its location and if anyone is trying to remove it. Also, your powers have been expanded further. Not enough to deal with Brimstone, but still quite a bit."

I nodded and right then we reached the entrance to the passage. She showed me how to operate the mechanism and how it only responds to a Guardian of the Gift, like her and I.

"I suggest you go now," she told me. "Your friends will be up soon if they are not already."

I nodded and took off, putting my staff back in its holster.

"Where were you?" Emma asked me when I arrived back at our camp. Everyone else was already awake and waiting for me.

"I went for a walk," I told them. "Couldn't sleep."

"Oh. Well, you're going to regret missing out on sleep," Luke told me. "Mark set up training schedules for us, and they're not very fun."

"Actually, I set up schedules for all of us," Mark said, holding out a sheet of paper. "I set up schedules that helped every aspect of us."

He handed each of us a paper and we looked at them. Mine included a lot of weight-lifting exercises, as was Luke's.

"Where's your schedule?" I asked Mark.

"I don't have one," he replied. "There's not really any way to test my intelligence."

"You will train with me," Shanai said as she walked up to us. "I can still use my Gift of Intelligence, so I can test your intelligence."

"Cool," he said, even though he could barely speak from being in complete awe. I couldn't blame him, either. It's considered an honor to train under Shanai.

"You should begin your training once you finish breakfast," she told us. We nodded and ate quick breakfasts.

"What did Mark put on your schedule?" Emma asked me.

"Weight training," I told her.

"After that?"

"More weight training," I added. "You?"

"Swimming, running with weights, and more," she replied. "Where are we supposed to get all this gear?"

I pointed to the bags Luke was manhandling off the back off Mark's Mecha. "Mark brought a bunch of training gear. Don't ask me how he managed to get all that weight onto his Mecha, though," I told her. "There must have been a thousand pounds on the back of that Mecha."

"He must have a strong motor," she commented before Mark shooed her off for running.

"See ya later!" I yelled after her before she took off, leaving nothing but a puff of dust in her wake.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23—Training, Day One

Thanks for the reviews! This is a longer chapter, so get comfortable!

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"What do we need to do?" Luke and I asked Mark.

"We need to figure out how much you can lift without your powers," he said.

We pulled out lifting bars and loaded weights, stopping when we could barely lift it. My limit was 150 pounds, but Luke's was 160. He worked out over the summer more than me.

"Now we need to figure out your limit _with_ your powers," he added.

"You're going to need more weight than this," we told him, gesturing to the bag. I walked over to it and lifted it with one hand, although it put a lot of strain on my powers. I was proud that I didn't have to go all-out to lift it, though.

"Okay, then," he said. "I'll just set that limit to over 1,000."

"Sure," I laughed.

"Make sure you don't use your powers too much," Dynamo warned me. "Your mom will be mad if you overdo it and almost kill yourself."

"I know, I know," I assured him. "I'll be fine." I felt fine, too. Being in contact with the crystal completely refilled my energy and more, so I had plenty of surplus energy.

During the first half of the day we did various strength exercises to increase our strength limit.

"Mark?" I said when we were all finished with that part of training.

"Yeah?" he asked me.

"I hate your schedule," I told him. Luke and Emma nodded as well, gasping. Emma was running for almost the entire time to work on her endurance and Luke and I were pushing our limits by lifting more and more weight. Every time we used our powers he fired his Flatulorhinkus, Stank, at us, causing our eyes to water. We could barely stand.

"Do you think you could heal us for the next part of training?" Luke asked me as he flopped down on the ground.

"There's another part?" I groaned. Mark just rolled his eyes and fired his Fandango, Booster, at me. My energy was filled and I was able to heal all of us.

"What's the next part?" Emma demanded. "If it means I run more, so help me…"

"Don't worry," he told us, pulling up a document on his Glasses. "I planned us to practice our dueling after lunch."

"Sweet," I said. "Looks like our slugs have to start working as well."

All around us we heard faint grumbling as our slugs complained, but we just ignored it and checked our schedules. I was supposed to work on my sharpshooting and Emma with her strategical planning. Mark and Luke were supposed to work on their dueling and Leo was going to be switching among all of them.

"You're going to be aiming at a target I set up over there," Mark told me, pointing to a circular target he set up about fifteen feet up the cavern wall.

"That's not hard," I told him, getting ready to make the shot.

"Oh, no," he said. "Not from here. Follow me," he added before we climbed onto the Mechas and going to the caves.

"I was afraid you'd say this," I said. The caves were at the far end of the cavern.

"Halfway up, you'll find a cave that is roughly twenty feet lower than the target," he told me. "You will be able to see the target, but I want you to make sure you can hit it through several trickshots as well as a direct shot, which I am sure you can manage."

"Thanks for giving me an easy job," I told him. He just chuckled as I launched Stinger to give me a climbing rope. I used it to climb up to the proper cave, where I hooked up an enhanced scope to the cameras on my Glasses and used them to zoom in on the target. From the distance it looked fairly small, but with the targeting system I hooked up I could aim to a fraction of an inch.

"Let's do this, Speedy," I told Speedy as I loaded him and charged him with enough energy to ensure a clean shot. I took careful aim and fired Speedy. He flew at the target and bounced right off the middle, flying back at me.

"Good job," I told him. "Time to start working on the trickshots."

He nodded and I got into the proper thinking mode, envisioning every possibility before I figured out the first one for me to use. I loaded Speedy and quickly fired before anything could shift that would ruin it.

When Speedy velocimorphed he ricocheted off a few trees before bouncing off of Emma's Mecha, Leon's blaster, Shanai's house and Red Hook's hook as he walked outside to grab something from a shed. He scowled at Speedy but continued on his way. Speedy continued to ricochet around until hitting the target. It only hid the edge, though, so Speedy looked disappointed when he returned.

"Don't worry, we'll get it," I told him. I focused on another shot and fired again. There were even more ricochets, but this time he hit the target dead-on.

"See?" he chirped. "I knew we could do it!"

I laughed and gave him a rest, loading Stuntz for a couple shots. Every time he hit the center, so Mark yelled at me to come down.

"Good job, but now I have a new job for you," he told me. "Try doing the trickshots without a Speedstinger slug."

I scowled at him but climbed back up the rope.

"Hm…" I thought for a couple minutes before the first, and one of the simplest in my mind, popped up.

"We're aiming for that target," I told Bolt as I loaded him into my blaster. He nodded and squinted at the target as I loaded him with energy. When he nodded I launched him. He soared through the air, quickly velocimorphing, but I aimed a bit off. Bolt just adjusted his direction and still managed to hit the target.

"Time for something a bit more difficult," I said. I loaded and launched Turbo, waited a few seconds, then launched Nuker. Turbo managed to latch on to Nuker and aim him exactly at the target before flying away. When Turbo detonated he actually destroyed it, so I congratulated him when Turbo collected them all and brought them back to me.

"I wonder…" I muttered, looking at Speedy and Nuker. A crazy idea appeared in my head, but I wanted to try it.

"Let's see if this will work," I said as I prepared my fusion blaster and loaded Nuker and Speedy. Mo, Eli's Enigmo, popped up on my shoulder and shook his head furiously.

"What's wrong, little dude?" I asked him.

"It won't work!" he told me. "Their auras aren't aligned."

"Thanks. How about Stuntz and Nuker?" I asked him.

He looked at the two slugs and nodded before falling off my shoulder. I laughed and switched out Speedy for Stuntz.

"Don't worry, I use you more often anyways," I told Speedy as I prepared the shot. I aimed them at the wall of the cavern and adjusted it until it was just right, launching the slugs.

They velocimorphed right away, and spun together for a second before they were replaced by a fusion slug that looks like a Speedstinger with the green armor of a Grenuke. The slug curled into a ball and ricocheted around the cavern before hitting where the target used to be and detonating, leaving a large charred mark on the spot.

"Good job, guys!" I told them when they returned. Stuntz looked a bit dizzy, but Nuker was fine.

"What's wrong?" I asked Stuntz.

"He's not used to being blown up," Nuker said simply. "It's a bit dizzying at first." I nodded and let Stuntz rest in his tube.

I practiced trick shots until I had found a way to use each of my slugs in a shot, which can be tough when you have a Bubbaleone on your team. I managed it, though, by combining Suds with Toxin. The resulting fusion shot was a toxic Bubbaleone that caused the target area to bubble. It was pretty interesting to watch.

"Hey!" Leo yelled right as I finished. I looked down and saw him looking up at me.

"What's up!" I yelled back.

"Mark told me that I need to work on my trickshots!" he told me.

"Come on up, then!" I shouted down. He used his Arachnet to strengthen the rope I used, which was becoming a bit loose after repeated use, and climbed up to where I was.

"These caves are cool," he commented.

"Yeah, they are," I replied. He set his things down and walked up next to me.

"So, Mark says you need to work on your trickshots?" I asked him.

"That's what he said," Leo replied.

"Have you ever used a trickshot before?" I asked him.

"No."

"Do you have a Speedstinger slug?" I added.

"Nope," he said. "Is that bad?"

"Nope. You can use other slugs for trickshots, but I find it easiest to use a Speedstinger," I explained. "You can use Stuntz," I added, holding out the slug tube. Stuntz jumped onto Leo's hand and chirped "Hello" to him.

"Hey there, bud," Leo replied. He loaded Stuntz and looked around. "Where am I supposed to be aiming?" he asked me.

"I destroyed the target, so I'll just show you how to make a trickshot," I told him. I loaded Speedy and went through a step-by-step demonstration of a trickshot.

"You need to imagine how the shot will play out," I told him. "Think of every factor, every object around you and how it can influence a trickshot."

"I've got one!" he said. He aimed at the far back of the cave and launched Stuntz. He ricocheted off and bounced right back at Yang.

"Not so fast," I said, grabbing the slug midair. "Try not to hurt people or slugs with the trickshots unless the situation demands it."

He nodded and loaded Stuntz again, aiming carefully at a spot just outside the cave. I was about to ask him what he was doing when he fired. Stuntz began spiraling around the entire cavern, using the wall's features to make sure Stuntz stayed in a straight line.

"Nice," I told him, taking careful aim. "Now, watch this."

I waited a few seconds before firing right as Stuntz became a complete blur as he continued. Speedy flew by Stuntz, ricocheted at a spot less than a fraction of a second before Stuntz would hit it.

"Now for the finishing touch," I added, loading River. I aimed again and fired, and this time when River entered velocimorph she created a layer of mist at the same level we were at.

"How will they see?" Leo asked me.

"They won't," I told him. "It's part of the trick," I added before all three slugs came flying out of the fog straight at us. I caught them all and handed Stuntz back to Leo.

"Thanks," he replied. "You should use that for the next trickshot competition."

"I plan on it," I replied with a smile.

I spent the next half hour or so showing how to perfect his trickshots.

"When's the next trickshot competition?" Leo asked me as we climbed down for dinner.

"Don't know," I replied. "They're probably cancelled until the University opens up again.

"Bummer," he said. "Oh, well. We can still practice."

"True," I added.

We walked over to where everyone else was and were handed slices of pizza.

"Where'd you get the pizza?" I asked Emma.

"We cooked it," she said. "Shanai is an amazing cook."

"Thanks," I told Shanai as I ate the pizza. It was _amazing_.

"What's on the schedule for tomorrow?" I asked Mark as we cleaned up after we ate.

"More training, although it _isn't as hard as today_!" he said, stressing the last part as we all turned away and climbed into our sleeping bags or hammocks.

"I know you two aren't asleep," Mark said, walking between Emma and I. I clamped my eyelids shut as he tried to open him. He gave up and tried to force Emma to pay attention, but she was already passed out. I wasn't far behind.

That night, I had one of my usual nightmares. I was back at the portal leading to the Deep Caverns. I watched in slow motion as the Boon Deaths hit the victims. This time, though, the victims weren't Eli and Trixie. They were Mom and Emma.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed when I watched them die. I sat straight up in my hammock, breathing rapidly. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned, hands bunching into fists.

"Jacob! It was just a dream!" Emma told me over and over as I looked around wildly. I was coated in sweat and was surrounded by a bubble of energy that kept me suspended above the ground since I somehow shredded the hammock in my sleep. It took me about ten minutes to calm down, and in that time I lowered myself to the ground and placed my head in my hands, slowing my breathing to slow my heart rate.

"What was it?" Emma asked, removing my hands and putting them in hers. "Which dream?"

I just said nothing and focused on keeping my powers under control. She repeated the question, but I just kept shaking my head. The dream kept replaying itself in my mind.

"Jacob," I heard Shanai say as she walked up to us. "Forget the dream."

I shook my head. She just sighed and loaded a slug that I couldn't see. She took aim and fired. It was a Hypnogrif slug. When it hit me the thought of the dream completely left my thoughts.

"What did the slug do?" Emma asked Shanai as the Hypnogrif hopped to my side. It was my Hypnogrif, Hypno.

"It made him forget about the dream," she said. "With luck, he will never have that dream again."

"What dream?" I asked them. I had no idea what dream they were talking about.

"Nothing," Emma told me. I nodded and stood up, stretching my legs and arms.

"Why's my hammock destroyed?" I asked the others.

"You kept tossing and turning all night," Mark said. "You must have torn it somehow."

"Oh."

After that we all ate a quick breakfast before Mark gave us our schedules. Mine still included workouts, but they targeted different parts of my body so that I wouldn't damage tired muscles from repeated use.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24—Day Two

Thanks for the reviews! Sorry it took so long for me to update, but I was working on another Fanfic.

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"How much more do you have to do?" I asked Emma about thirty minutes into training.

"Just a couple more miles and I'm good to go," she panted. She wasn't allowed to use her powers, so she was panting for breath.

"Mark's not here," I told her. "He's training with Shanai."

She smiled. "How much longer do you have?"

"Just a few more repetitions," I told her, lifting one of the weights in my hand. It weighed roughly a hundred pounds, so I was allowed to use my powers enough for me to still get exercise without injuring myself. "After that, I'm all set, too."

She smiled and her eyes lit up in bright yellow before disappearing in a gust of wind. I just chuckled and finished my workout as she flew by twice and stopped.

"All done," she said.

"Me too," I replied.

"Me three!" Luke yelled as he ran by. We were standing by the lake, and he already had his shirt off as he used his powers to jump out to the middle of the lake.

"Show off!" Emma screamed.

"Oh, that's not showing off," I told her. "_This_ is showing off," I added before taking off my shirt and using the full extent of my powers to leap almost completely across the lake.

"You're right!" she yelled. "You are _so_ showing off!"

I laughed and walked into deeper water. The impact on the water would've killed someone else, but something about the Strength Gift makes our bones stronger so that they can endure greater strain, like jumping across a lake or lifting a ton of weight (literally).

"Watch it!" Speedy said when River soaked him with water. Even though I removed my shirt, bandolier and beanie, Speedy and Yang stuck with me. The rest of my slugs were spreading out in the water to relax. River met me on the lake, riding a miniature wave she created.

"Oh, relax a little," she said. "Have some fun!"

"I'll show you fun!" Speedy yelled, jumping and tackling her into the water. As they swam around I turned and floated on my back. Numerous slugs hopped onto my stomach and said "hello" to me, and I would always reply likewise.

"Hey! Don't forget me!" Leo yelled when he got to the lake. He fired Slushy, his Frostcrawler, to create a surfboard. "Fire River for me!"

"Where's River!" I said.

"Right here!" she said, jumping onto my shoulder. Speedy was a second behind her.

I got into position and took careful aim, sinking my feet into the sand for a firm hold before launching River right above the water line. She velocimorphed and flew behind Leo before approaching him, creating a large wave that carried him right at me.

"Ah!" I yelled as the wave overtook me. I bent backwards under the force, but my right ankle didn't, still anchored in the sand. I felt a _crack_ in my ankle and a lance of pain shot up my leg.

"What happened?" Speedy asked me.

"My ankle," I told him. He swam down and cleared away the sand so that I could remove my foot, which was accompanied by another shot of pain that had stars dancing before my eyes.

"What happened to you?" Emma, Luke and Leo asked me when I got to the shallows. I had to lie on my back to ease the pain slightly.

"Oh," Emma gasped when she saw my ankle. I looked down and saw that it was twisted at the wrong angle and was quickly swelling.

"Lift your ankle," Leo told me.

"_WHAT?_" I demanded.

"I'll do it," Luke said, going over to my ankle. I was about to protest when he slowly lifted my foot out of the water.

"OW!" I screamed. "That hurt!"

"I know it did. Your ankle's broken," Leo said. "Do you know if you can heal it?"

"I'll try," I told them. I closed my eyes and tried to access my healing abilities, but the pain wouldn't allow me to focus. "I can't," I said. "The pain's too much."

"Use me!" Medic chirped. Leo was about to scoop her up when I shook my head.

"Use MegaMorph," I told him.

"How?" he demanded. "I don't have an accelerator?"

"Small green button in the middle of your fusion core," I told him. "Press it. I made some minor modifications. Happy early birthday."

"Thanks," he said. He pressed the button and the light in it lit up as pieces popped out to form an accelerator. He loaded Medic and fired. She entered MegaMorph velocimorph and eased the swelling and pain, but not the actual bone.

"We'll need to set it in a cast," Luke commented. "It's what happened when I broke my ankle a few years ago."

My eyes widened but they set to work gathering materials for a cast. They had all the materials in their bags, so they had to go back to the camp to get it all.

"Found it!" Emma said, opening up a package. "It was in my bag."

I nodded and Emma gave me a branch to bite as they moved my ankle into the correct positioning. I just broke the branch, though, and let out a scream as they finished.

"What's going on out here?" Red Hook demanded as he stormed through the jungle towards us. He emerged and glared at all of us. "What did you do to yourself this time?" he added.

"It wasn't my fault," I told him as they set up the cast. "The wave Leo was on caught me and my ankle didn't want to follow."

He scowled but softened up slightly. "Where did the wave come from?" he demanded.

"I used River so that Leo could go surfing," I told him.

"River?" he asked. "What's a 'River'?"

"Me," River said, peaking out from under my arm. Red Hook scares her. "I'm a Riviera slug."

"A Riviera, huh?" he said. "Never seen one of those before. Where'd you find her?" he asked me.

"She was a gift," I told him. "From Elina Shae."

"Ah, I remember her," he said. "Nice girl. Haven't seen her in probably fifteen years."

"She's still just as nice as before," Luke said. "She treated Jake when he got the Phantom Fever."

"The Fever?" he said. "Why is it all bad things seem to be centered around the Shanes?"

"Bad luck?" Leo said.

"Bad timing?" I added.

"Probably both. You okay?" Mark commented when he and Shanai arrived. Shanai just slowly shook her head while Mark made sure I was okay.

"Other than the broken ankle, you mean?" I asked when he asked me if I was okay.

"Yeah," he said.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him. I winced as they finished the cast. Shanai fired Ping, who helped fix the injury, and I used my powers to heal it the rest of the way until it just looked a bit red.

"I suggest you stay off of it for at least an hour," Shanai told me.

I nodded and activated a magnet system in my gloves. "I suggest you duck," I told Shanai as my staff soared overhead. The magnets work with strong electromagnets I implanted in my staff, so just a flick of the wrist will have my staff return to my side.

When it got to me I used it to push myself to my feet, or foot, and used it as a makeshift crutch. I hobbled over to the camp and grabbed a book to read before walking back to the lake and using Stinger to create a hanging chair from a few trees, using an intricate set of ropes to support it. I got comfortable in it and opened the book to the first page. It was actually one of my Blaster-Smithing textbooks, but I was bored and it looked interesting at the time.

"Why are you reading that?" Red Hook demanded as everyone but him and Shanai ran back into the lake.

"It's for one of my classes," I told him. "I don't have anything else to read, so I need to make do with what I have."

He scowled at the book and motioned for me to follow him. I climbed to my feet and used my staff to help me hobble along behind him. After a few minutes of following him we arrived back at his house and walked inside.

"If you're going to read a Blaster-Smithing book, at least read a good one," he growled as he looked through a shelf of books and eventually grabbed one.

"Sorry, but this is required for a class," I told him.

"You probably won't need that class if you read the books I give you," he said, tossing the book to me. I grabbed it and looked over it. It was more of a notebook than a textbook, but it had a bunch of information about blasters, their functions, and other things, each more advanced than the last, like advanced velocimorph physics.

"Thanks," I replied. He nodded and I returned to my chair by the lake. I opened the journal to the first page and began reading about the origins of blasters.

"You know you don't have to sit down anymore, right?" Emma said, walking up to me an hour later.

"I know," I replied, putting a leaf in the journal to mark my place. I set the book down and stood up carefully. The ankle looked completely normal again, and all that was left to remind me of it was the slight twinge of pain when I stepped on it, but it soon disappeared.

"Hey, Jake!" Mark yelled out from the middle of the lake. "Get over here! We need to show you something!"

I nodded and took off my shirt again along with shoes, socks, beanie and slinging gear. My slugs were still out on the lake, but they surrounded me as I jumped into the middle of the lake, right next to Mark.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Do you have Suds with you?" he asked, not explaining why.

"Right here!" Suds chirped from my elbow.

"Good. Before we use him I need you to swim to the bottom with me," he said. I nodded and we all took deep breaths before turning and swimming straight down, making sure not to go too fast so that we could adjust to the pressure.

"There!" I heard Speedy chirp when we weren't far from the bottom. Don't ask me how, but some slugs are able to speak underwater. I always wondered that myself.

I followed his gaze and saw a strange cave in the bottom.

I looked to Mark and he looked back and pointed straight to the surface. I nodded and we returned to the surface, breaking the surface right as my lungs began to scream for air.

"What is that?" I gasped.

"We don't know!" Leo said. "We were waiting for you so that we could have enough Bubbaleones to reach the cave and explore it."

I nodded and we went to the shore to grab our blasters and slug tubes so that we could bring our slugs.

"Let's go," I said when we reached the middle. Emma, Leo, Luke and I loaded our Bubbaleones. Mark doesn't have one, so he'll just be with Luke.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25—The Cave

Thanks for the reviews! This chapter's a bit shorter than usual, but it's worth it for the quick update.

"We're headed for that cave they found," I told Suds when he velocimorphed. He nodded and swallowed me up in his bubble. Everything turned an odd tinge of pink as we descended into the lake. After a couple minutes we reached the cave and managed to shrink the bubbles enough to fit through the small entrance. The cave was dimly lit, but our Phosphoros easily lit up the cave so that we could see it. The walls seemed to be worn smooth by age, and as we went I saw that after a few dozen yards it began to slope upwards again.

Another twenty yards later I saw a faint gleam up ahead at a point where the tunnel levels out. When we reached it we went straight, up again, and emerged in a large cave. It wasn't quite big enough to be considered a cavern, but was still pretty big. The small area the water took up was about a quarter of the room, and when we emerged from our Bubbaleones.

"This place is _amazing_!" Leo said, shouting so that he could hear his voice echo.

"Don't yell!" I hissed at him. "We don't know what is down here!"

Leo just rolled his eyes and set off, the rest of us spreading out to make sure everything was safe. The cave itself was about a hundred feet by one hundred and fifty feet. The walls were rough and cracked in some places, but none large enough for us to sneak through.

"Hey, guys!" I heard Emma yell from the far end of the cave. I took off and arrived at where she was.

"What is it?" Luke asked when he got there.

"I found something," she said, pointing to the wall in front of her.

On the wall was a large carving. It showed five orbs, each one of them a different color than the last. Each matched with the five colors of the Gifted, though.

"I think that's supposed to represent our Gifts," I said.

"What's that supposed to be, then?" Luke added, pointing to a larger orb, with all five colors combined. It must have represented the Gift.

I shrugged. "No idea."

"Check out over here," Mark said, examining a small part of the wall next to the orbs. We looked in his direction and saw four lines forming a rectangle about ten feet wide and seven feet tall.

"What is it?" I said.

"It must be a door," Mark said. "Maybe, if we each place a hand on our orb, we can open the door?"

"Yeah, but only four of us are here," Emma reminded him. "I think that Vinyl's at her house, relaxing."

Vinyl is the fifth Gifted. We rarely contact her, since she hangs out with a different crowd that we don't get along with.

We sighed and began to walk away, but I got an idea and quietly walked back. I placed my hand on the orb representing the Gift and let out a pulse of energy.

"Jake?" Emma said cautiously from behind me as all of the orbs lit up in a blaze of light. "What did you do?"

"I…I don't know," I said, stepping back. The secret I was keeping of the Gift must have allowed me to open the door. "I just placed my hand on the big orb. I might have triggered some master override or something."

"Whatever you did, it worked," Leo commented as the cave shook. Dust rained down on our shoulders before a loud hissing noise could be heard from the lines as air raced out and the door swung outwards to reveal a dark chamber.

"What is this?" I whispered as I held out Glimmer to brighten up the pathway. He lit up and Brisingr did the same from my shoulder. I slowly walked in and soon my friends accompanied me.

"Stop!" Emma said when we were about five feet in. I froze and she pointed out small circular holes in the walls.

"How did you see them?" I asked her.

"My Secondary Gift," she said with a shrug. All Gifted have a primary Gift, like my Strength, and a Secondary Gift. They are Sight, Hearing, Tracking, Sensing Lies and Understanding all languages. I have the ability to understand all languages. We didn't know who had the other Gifts, but now we have one more crossed off the list.

"How do you deactivate them?" I asked her.

"Simple," Mark said. "Press here," he added, pressing a small button that was almost impossible to see.

"How did you know that?" Leo demanded.

"Reasoning," he said. "If the switch to activate it is easy to hit and on the floor, then the deactivation switch would be hard to find. I barely noticed this."

"How do we know this will work?" Luke asked him.

"We press the other button and see what happens," I said, stepping on the floor button.

"Jake!" Emma screamed as the switch creaked. Nothing happened, though, so we cautiously continued. Emma stayed in the lead, keeping her eyes out for any more traps. We didn't, and eventually came upon another door, slightly smaller than the tunnel. It had a picture of the Gift and nothing else. Luke walked over to it and placed his hands on it, but nothing happened.

"Why isn't anything happening?" Luke demanded, storming up to me.

"I don't know. Let me try," I told him. I walked over to the picture and placed my hand on it. The door instantly responded, opening to reveal complete darkness.

"What do we do?" Luke said.

"Use Phosphoros and any other slugs that produce light," I told him. I held out Glimmer and Brisingr as Leo held out Burpy and his Phosphoro. Everyone else held out Phosphoros or Lumino Creatures as we walked forward into the room.

"This place is _huge_," I said.

"There's something on the walls," Mark commented, keeping his hand on the wall.

"What are they?" I said.

"Torches," Leo replied. Burpy lit his as I used Brisingr to light another. We continued around the room, lighting torches as we went until the room was completely lit.

"Wow," Emma gasped when we saw what the room was.

It was a hidden base.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26—The Base

Thanks for the reviews! Look out at the bottom for another note from me!

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"Whoa," I gasped. I couldn't help but agree with Emma. The room was a large circle. There were a couple tables coated in dust. They looked like they were carved from the rock themselves. A large map covered one wall. It displayed the entire 99 Caverns with one large red circle in one cavern.

"What's the circle supposed to be?" Emma said, touching the circle.

"The Main Front," Mark said, looking at a paper. "These are all papers and plans dated during the war to push back the Darkbane. The SlugTerrans managed to seal all other exits, but it was almost impossible to get to this spot. When they finally managed to push them behind the breach, they couldn't completely block the breach, so they created a forcefield to keep them out."

"That's the Portal?" Luke said. "Cool."

"Hey, over here," Leo said, gesturing to a desk. On top were five envelopes, but it got even weirder.

"They have your names on them," Leo told us.

"How did they know…?" Emma said, sitting down with her envelope in her hand.

"We may never know," I said, grabbing my letter. I sat down as well and was about to open it when Luke stopped me. "What?" I demanded.

"Look on the back," he told me, releasing my hand. I turned the envelope over and saw the words "Do not open until you graduate from SlugTerra University," written on it.

"Whoa," I said again. "When I'm able to open this thing, I hope they explain it all."

"Agreed," Luke agreed. "My envelope says the same thing on the back."

"This sucks," Emma commented. "I wish we could open these things."

"Well, we can't," I told her. We put our letters back and looked around more. There was a wall covered in charts and data and five boxes, each one a different color.

"Please tell me we can at least open these," I said, walking over to the blue box.

"There's nothing saying that we can't," Mark said. I nodded and we opened each of them at the same time.

"Well, I definitely didn't see that coming," Emma said as we looked in.

"Agreed," Luke said. "I half expected money or something."

I was surprised that they _didn't_ see it coming. We were in a _secret military base_, for crying out loud. Why wouldn't there be weapons in chests?

"I think it's cool," I commented, pulling out a curved sword.

"Why would there be weapons here, in SlugTerra?" Emma said. "We fight with slugs, not swords."

"Back in the time of the war, the people needed weapons that would actually affect the Darkbane, and very few slugs can beat them," I explained, removing the sword from its sheath and watching the light glint off the blade. "To create weapons that would be effective against the Darkbane, SlugTerrans adopted the art of blacksmithing and created weapons to use. These must be the weapons that the Gifted used."

"If you know so much about this, then why are there so many different weapons?" Mark said. He sounded a bit jealous that I knew more than him.

"Different situations demanded different weapons for the job," I said. My brain was on overdrive thinking of the answers. "In a full-out battle, they would use larger weapons meant for heavy use," I added, lifting a large broadsword as an example. "For missions that were meant for espionage, they used weapons that were quieter and meant for taking out guards silently," I finished, lifting a bow and a quiver of arrows.

"How do you know all of this?" Emma asked me. "You sound like an expert on this kind of stuff."

I shrugged. "Eli liked to tell me stories from the Surface," I told them. "About how, hundreds of years ago, people fought with swords, clubs, axes and other weapons. Nowadays, they use much more dangerous weapons that you don't even need to be close to use. They spit out hunks of metal that easily kill."

"I remember the first stories, but not the second part," Leo commented.

"Eli only told me the second part when Trixie wasn't around. She hated those stories," I explained.

"Oh," Leo said simply.

"So, what are we going to do with all these weapons?" Luke commented, trying to change the subject.

"I think we should leave them all here," Mark said. "We could get in a lot of trouble if we were caught with these."

"I think we should leave most of them here, but bring some with us in case we need to protect ourselves against Darkbane," I said. "Even though our slugs are powerful enough to deal with Darkbane, they will only appear in larger numbers from now on. We will have to learn to defend ourselves without slugs as well as with slugs."

"Let's put it to a vote," Leo said.

"You aren't part of the vote," Luke said.

Leo's face filled with annoyance until I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, Leo, but he's right," I told him. "Because these were weapons used by the first Gifted, they should only be used by Gifted."

"Please?" he said, trying his best to convince me.

"No," I replied.

"Pleeeeeeeeease?" he repeated, except he drew it out as long as possible. He repeated it over and over until I finally gave in.

"Fine!" I shouted, launching Larry to glue his mouth shut. He grinned and pulled off the goop with his left arm. "Just make sure you don't tell my mother," I told him. "She'll kill me if she finds out."

"We still need to vote about it, you know," Luke commented.

"Oh, right," I said. "All for Mark's plan to leave all weapons here, raise your hand."

Mark raised his hand, but nobody else did.

"Okay. Everyone for my plan to leave all but a few weapons here so that we will be able to defend ourselves, raise your hand," I added. Everyone but Mark raised his or her hand.

"Seriously," I told Leo. "Do. Not. Tell. My. Mother. She'll be pissed off enough if she finds out I have weapons like these. She'll freak out if she finds out I gave some to you."

"Then we don't tell her," he said calmly. I nodded and we turned to my chest to choose weapons.

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**A note from the author: Hey, guys! I'm gonna do something i haven't done before. I'm gonna let the readers influence the next chapter. Leave a review telling me what weapons you think the characters should get. The most popular choices win!**

**I'll talk to you guys next chapter!**


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27—Weapons

Thanks for the reviews! You guys helped me a lot to decide on this chapter!

* * *

"Which ones stand out to you?" I asked Leo as we looked through the pile. He shrugged and randomly grabbed a small piece of wood with a spearhead attached.

"That's pretty small," I commented. "Are you sure you want it?"

He pressed a small switch I didn't notice and it expanded to be about six feet tall. "Yeah, I'm sure I want this," he said with a grin. I nodded and looked through the chest. I decided on a set of twin swords. Each were designed as a one-handed sword, but could be used with two. The grips were even dark blue. I strapped on the swords and grabbed two sets of throwing knives.

"Those choices fit you," Luke told me as he pulled out a large broadsword and strapped it across his back.

"Thanks. You too," I replied. I looked over to Mark and saw that he was pulling out a couple packs of strange metal rings. The insides were covered in leather, but the outsides were razor sharp.

"What are those?" I asked Mark, pointing to the rings.

"According to this slip of paper, they're chakrams," Mark explained. "You're supposed to throw them."

"Cool," Leo said. I looked over at Emma and saw her admiring a bow and set of arrows.

"I think you should use them," I said, walking over to Emma. She nodded and set them aside before a glint caught her eye. She leaned down and pulled out a small dagger. The handle was an intricate knot of metal, but was very nice. She looked it over before tucking it into her pocket.

"Is there anything else we need from here?" Emma asked us.

"I don't know, but we should look around some more to gather as much information as we can," I told them. We all agreed and spread out around the room, looking at various charts and spreadsheets.

"Earlier, you mentioned a story Dad told you about the Surface," Leo commented, walking up next to me. "Why didn't the others question your knowledge of the Surface?"

I sighed. "It was actually because of a really dumb mistake I made earlier during the summer," I told him. "I was telling them one of Dad's stories and accidentally mentioned the Surface. They asked me how I knew so much about the Surface. I wouldn't answer them until they bugged me endlessly for over a week, when I finally caved in and told them about us. They promised me never to tell anyone else about the Surface, though. They can be trusted with this."

"Good," he replied.

We looked around the base for about twenty more minutes before we closed the chests and left. I closed every door behind us by pressing the image of the Gift. The torches immediately extinguished themselves as each set of doors closed.

"Let's go," I said when we reached the water. We launched our Bubbaleones, but I launched Suds into MegaMorph. The bubble was more than two times bigger, and I'm pretty sure it was stronger than before as well. I had Mark jump in with me since we had extra room and we quickly traveled through the underwater passage before surfacing again in the main cavern.

"We can't tell anybody about that base, understood?" I told the others. They all nodded and I nodded as well. "We need to hide our weapons with the rest of our stuff," I added.

"So, you finally found the base?" Shanai said calmly when we arrived at the camp. She was sitting by the fire pit, watching as we pathetically tried to hide our weapons. Leo and Mark had it easiest. Leo just pressed the button to shrink his spear and Mark managed to hide all of his chakrams underneath his shirt, making him look like he gained twenty pounds.

"What?" I demanded.

"Don't worry, I know about the base," she said. "Where do you think I got the idea for my fusion blaster? Those weapons were left there by the first of us, so that every generation could remove a weapon and return them when they are no longer needed. For the next two days, we will train you to use those weapons. I suggest you get some more rest today, because tomorrow everything gets harder. You will use the schedules _we_ give you from tomorrow on, and believe me, that will make Marcus's schedules look like a walk in the park."

"Oh, great," Luke groaned. We set our weapons by our Mechas and returned to the lake except for me. I walked over to the wall of caves and climbed up to a middle cave by myself, using small cracks and crevices to help myself get to the proper cave.

"Why are you up here?" Speedy asked me as I got comfortable, leaning against the wall.

"I like the peace and quiet," I told him. "It's a good way to escape all my problems."

"Sometimes, you can have some really smart ideas," he replied.

"Tha—Hey!" I snapped. He giggled but stopped as I grabbed him and tossed him down the cliff. He reached velocimorph about ten feet off the ground and bounced back up to me.

"Ha!" Speedy chirped when he landed next to me. I just rolled my eyes and leaned my head back to relax. I must have fallen asleep, because Dozer woke me up an hour later.

Just so you know, don't use a bullhorn on a person who's on the edge of a tall cliff. They tend to jump, and that leads to falling.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28—Falling

Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to leave one at the bottom!

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"Dozer!" I screamed as I fell. "I'm gonna kill you!"

I heard them all chirp in alarm as I grabbed for Spinner. He hopped into my hand and I threw him below me. He created a large net right before I hit it, slowing my fall before I tore through the net and crashed into the ground.

"Jake!" Emma gasped when she got next to me. It only took her a fraction of a second to run up to me.

"Ow…" I groaned. I didn't feel any broken bones, but it _really_ hurt.

"Did you jump again?" Luke demanded when he got to where I was lying.

"No, I fell," I replied. "I was sleeping, buy Dozer woke me up," I explained. "I lost my balance and fell over the edge. I tried to use an Arachnet web to stop me, but I tore right through it."

"Are you sure somebody didn't curse you with a Hexlet?" Leo asked me. We all turned to Emma and her Hexlet slug, Lucky (I know, ironic name).

"Hey, I didn't do anything," she told us. "Why would I curse you?"

"Would you like a list of all the other times you've cursed me?" I asked her. She must have cursed me every other week while we battled. I usually overcame it, but afterwards Lucky would always curse me with bad luck that would last a couple hours.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, this time, I didn't do it," she told me.

"She's lying," Bruiser whispered loudly from her shoulder.

"Hey!" Emma shouted. "I did it _before_ you climbed up there. I didn't think you'd climb up there."

"Sure," I replied. "This time, though, you'd better get ready for some serious pranking."

"Bring. It. On," she told me.

"Oh, I plan to," I replied. I healed all the bruises and minor injuries I got from falling, and when I did they all walked away. I grabbed Slip, my Flopper, and threw it so that it landed directly beneath Emma's foot, causing her to slip.

"Oops," I yelled. She rolled her eyes and launched Slimer, her Jellyish, at me. I dodged and the glob of goo splattered the back of Mark's head.

"Hey!" Mark shouted. "It is _so_ on!" he added. He loaded and launched Crystal, his Geoshard. She hit Emma and it, binding our hands together. We would've been fine with it, except the crystal was digging into our arms so I broke it by simply flexing my hand. The crystal shattered instantly. Luke and Leo began laughing before joining in. Leo and Mark launched their Poleros at us to bind Emma and I together, but we broke free and began running through the forest.

"Where are you running to?" Luke asked when he caught up to me. I turned and launched Turbo at him. The slug picked him up and flew him all the way to the top of the caves. He just laughed and launched his Arachnet below him in MegaMorph, creating a net that caught him when he jumped down.

I laughed and kept running, eventually blowing by Red Hook. He growled and yelled something at me, but I didn't hear it. I just kept running until I reached the lake, where I grabbed my staff and the rest of my slugs.

"You shouldn't have left your slugs here," Leo said as he ran up behind me, loading Slushy, his Frostcrawler. He launched him at me in MegaMorph, freezing my entire body into a block of solid ice.

"Not. Fair," I managed to say as he pushed me into the water. I floated, but it was hard to focus because of the cold. Scorch, my Forgesmelter, and Brisingr began melting ice. Scorch spat lava as Brisingr used his flames. Soon I was warm enough to use my powers, and easily shattered the ice with a burst of power.

"You're a dead man, Leo!" I shouted as I used Spinner to pin him to a tree. He tore off the webbing, but I just launched rapid series of slugs. I froze his arm with Freezer, seared his eyebrows off with Brisingr, and sent him flying with Gale.

"Jacob!" he screamed as he flew off into the distance.

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled. Speedy chirped from my shoulder and I quickly loaded and fired him in time to knock out a series of slugs from Emma.

"Ha!" I managed to scream before she used Slimer to glue my mouth shut. I peeled it off and launched a Flatulorhinkus at her. She gagged and took off in the opposite direction.

"I know a place we can hide," I said, silently running to a small crack-like cave. I dove through the opening and used a Thugglet I found to create an illusion over the entrance.

"Thanks for helping me," I told the slug when he returned to me. He nodded. "How would you like to join my team?" I added.

"Sure!" he chirped. "It gets boring here!"

"Great! How about I name you…Illusion?" I asked him.

"Sounds great! I love it!" he told me. I smiled and set him in a slug tube. I heard people running by, though, so I froze.

"I swear I saw him run this way!" Bruiser told Emma. They were standing right outside the cave.

"It's not your fault," Emma said. "He can climb really well. Maybe he's in one of the caves?"

"Only one way to find out," Bruiser chirped. She smiled and I heard her begin climbing the cliff, but I struck the wall after a couple seconds, causing her to fall off.

"I think he heard me," Emma whispered. I heard her load a slug and heard a velocimorphed Hoverbug pick her up and take her to the next highest cave.

"You should be nice," Speedy told me as I got comfortable. "This isn't very fair."

"All's fair in love and war," I told him, using one of Eli's quotes from the Surface. "This is a bit of both."

He shrugged and got comfortable on my shoulder as I watched the entrance to the cave. Illusion kept up the illusion until I was sure Emma was on her way down.

"I need you to create an illusion that makes Emma think I'm running in a various direction," I told him.

"Sure thing!" he chirped. I loaded him and fired the slug. He created an illusion of me running off into the woods. I heard Emma take off after the illusion, and as she did so I had Spinner and Stinger create webbing on my hands so that, as I climbed, the webbing gave my hands better grip on the wall. I managed to scramble midway up the cliff before Emma emerged from the jungle again.

"It must have been an illusion to draw us away," I heard Emma mutter. Before she could do anything, though, Jellyish goop came flying at her.

"Leo!" she screamed before she took off.

Over the following hour it went from harmless pranks to full-out war. I stayed in my perch, though, and used Speedy and Stuntz to mess with the others, knocking their shots off. Halfway through I loaded Blaster and Freezer into my fusion blaster and aimed at a point over the middle of the cavern.

"Don't disappoint," I said. They nodded and I launched them. They fused together and launched hundreds of grenades over the cavern. I managed to get one on everyone so that, when I detonated them, everyone was coated in ice.

"I win!" I screamed triumphantly before firing Stuntz to break all the ice.

"You just got a lucky shot," Leo muttered when I got to the ground. "You were over fifty feet above us."

"You should've thought to get the higher ground," I said simply. He rolled his eyes and brushed some ice off of his sleeve.

"What time is it?" Luke asked us. "It feels like we've been doing this for only a few minutes."

"About five at night," Mark told us. "Let's call a truce, okay?"

"Sure," I replied. We all agreed and walked over t our camp, where we put together dinner and chatted for a while.

"Who's the new slug?" Emma asked, pointing to Illusion.

"This is Illusion," I told her. "I used him to hide for a bit."

"Cool. Looks like we have another Thugglet in the group," Emma replied, referring to her Thugglet, Gremlin. He's a little trickster, always pulling pranks on the other slugs. Gremlin cheered from his slug tube before getting comfortable near the hammock Emma and I share. Soon he was asleep.

"We should follow his example," I said, standing up. "We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

They nodded and we went to our sleeping areas. Emma snuggled right up to me when I was comfortable, so I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

"Come one, wake up everybody! Time to train!" someone screamed the next morning. I groaned and grabbed a random slug of mine and threw it at the voice. The slug velocimorphed and the voice silenced, so I shifted my position and tried to fall asleep.

"I said, _WAKE UP_!" the voice yelled a minute later, and I felt the hammock give out beneath me. I reacted automatically, opening my eyes and grabbing Spinner, throwing him just in time to create a hammock to catch us right before we would have hit the ground.

"You're stubborn when tired, aren't you?" the voice demanded. I had recognized it by then as Shanai.

"Uh-huh," I murmured. Emma was still sleeping beside me and hadn't even stirred. Unfortunately, it was impossible to ignore the two Tazerlings she launched at us.

"When I say get up, you _get up_," Shanai said calmly as I glared at her.

"What just happened?" Emma demanded.

"She tried to wake us up, but I didn't want to," I told her. "Eventually, the Tazerlings won." I turned to Shanai. "What was the first slug I threw at you, anyways?"

"Larry," she said with a small smile, holding up the Lariat slug. I could still see the small amount of Lariat slime on her face. My aim must be better than I thought.

"Good choice," I muttered to myself before standing up and stretching. The electricity from the Tazerlings continued to course through my body for a couple seconds, causing my muscles to spasm before I adjusted to the energy. I walked off into the woods to change into different clothes in private, using Yang's Shadowblak to give me privacy.

"Are you five ready for the real training to begin?" Shanai asked us with a wicked grin when we were dressed and had eaten breakfast.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29—Real Training (a.k.a. torture)

Thanks for the reviews, and an extra thanks to those of you who have lent me their OCs. Don't forget to leave a review!

* * *

"How much longer do I have to run?" I panted as I passed by Shanai. She had me start off by running laps around the entire cavern. I had just finished my third.

"Three more," she told me. I groaned and kept going. Once I was out of her sight, though, I used my powers to ease the pains and give me the energy to increase my pace. Occasionally I would just use Turbo to take me a couple hundred yards at a time so that I could rest.

"Thanks bud," I would tell Turbo every time. He nodded and would jump into a slug tube while I continued.

When I finished my sixth lap she nodded so I fell back onto the ground. Dynamo gave me a good enough boost that I could calm my heart rate and heal my aches.

"Now, do a hundred and fifty push ups," she told me. I frowned at her but she didn't move so I rolled over and began doing push ups.

"Are you doing this because I wouldn't wake up this morning?" I demanded as my powers began to leak of their own accord, easing the strain on my muscles after the hundredth push up.

"No," she said before walking away to check on Mark. She had him doing fitness training, and he was sweating like crazy. He has never worked out as long as I have known him, unless you count him working out his brain.

"Jacob, come with me," she said an hour later. She had me do two hundred more sit-ups and some pull-ups in that time.

"Sure," I replied, jumping down from the branch I was sitting on. "What do you need me for?" I asked her.

"Grab your weapons," she told me, not directly answering the question.

I nodded and grabbed my swords and knives. She showed me how to strap them on and took me to a clearing in the jungle.

"Draw your weapons," she told me, spinning her staff. I raised my eyebrows but did as she asked, gripping the handles tightly. "Now, let's see if you know how to use them," she said before swinging her staff at my head. I caught it on the edge of one of my swords and sent it to the ground and swung at her chest hesitantly.

"You cannot show hesitation when fighting," she said, taking the opportunity to disarm me in one fell swoop. "It makes the difference between victory and defeat," she added, stopping the fusion staff inches from my head.

"Gee, thanks for the awesome advice," I muttered. "Too bad I don't really know how to even use these blades."

She sighed and show me how to hold the blades, then to use them in a variety of situations. I learned quickly, so I was soon able to hold my own.

"Now, let's work on your knives," she told me. I nodded and slid my swords in their sheaths. I pulled out a knife in each hand as she outlined a target on a very broad tree. "Let's start by checking your aim," she told me, standing slightly behind a tree in case I had really bad aim. I rolled my eyes and took aim before throwing a knife at the target.

"Not bad," Shanai told me.

The knife hit the exact center of the target.

"I spent a day working on sharpshooting," I told her. "I just adjusted to the weight of the knife and difference in methods for throwing."

She nodded and pulled out the knife. "Let's try a moving target," she told me.

"Wait. What?" I demanded.

She grabbed a bunch of branches on the ground. "I toss the sticks in the air, and you try to hit them," she explained before tossing the first one in the air. I threw the knife and hit the branch as it went by. She nodded and continued throwing branches, each one getting smaller until they were barely twigs.

"You may go relax until I finish with the others," she told me. I nodded and walked over to the lake, where I still had a webbing chair set up. I sat there, reading until Emma walked up to me.

"What took ya so long?" I asked her sarcastically as I moved over for her.

"Shanai, that's what took me so long," she said before sitting next to me. I set the book on the ground next to me.

"Aw, so cute," I heard Leo said as he walked by casually a few minutes later.

"Leo, I'm warning you," I muttered, not opening my eyes. He just chuckled.

"How long did it take you two to finally get together?" he asked us. "I heard that it was a while, but I'm not sure how long it took."

I sighed and began to get up, but Emma grabbed my wrist. "Don't do it, Jacob," she told me. "Just sit here and relax."

"Uh-uh," I told her. I pulled my arm away and walked over to Leo. "I challenge you to a duel," I growled. "If I win, you quit it with the dumb comments about Emma and I," I added.

"Sure, but _when_ I win, it'll get a lot worse," Leo said cockily. Save nodded to emphasize the point.

"Yeah, right," Emma laughed. We grabbed our blasters and slugs and walked over to a clearing not being used for training.

"Ready to lose?" Leo asked me when we were ready.

"Oh, just shut up and get ready to duel," I growled. He laughed and Emma launched Bruiser to signal us. The moment he detonated midair we drew our blasters and began firing. Scorch shot down Pierce, Leo's Dirt Urchin, but Leo's Flaringo, Rocket, got past Freezer and scorched my eyebrows. I frowned and MegaMorphed Tesla to bring down Leo's Aquabeek. We continued to duel back and forth for a while. He almost beat me once by knocking both of my blasters away, but I fired Yang to distract him long enough for me to retrieve my staff.

"You guys are good," Emma commented after a couple more minutes. She had used her Flaringo to pop a bag of popcorn and was watching the duel intently.

"Thanks," I grunted as I swung my staff to redirect Leo's Rammstone back at him. He dove away from it and launched Save, most likely to get a quick victory.

I smiled and quickly loaded and launched Speedy into SuperMorph. He blew by Save, even though he was MegaMorphed, and hit Leo's blaster from his hand.

"Don't mess with me," I told him as I collected my slugs and tossed him his blaster.

"Yeah, yeah," Leo muttered as he retrieved his slugs as well. Emma and I returned to the lake and sat in the chair for an hour, watching the surface of the lake ripple slightly under faint winds.

A bit before we decided to go into the lake I got a call from Mom.

"What's up?" I said as I turned on the microphone and speaker.

"Hey. I got an update from the construction crew," she told me. "They've just finished the last of the repairs for the University."

"Great! When do you need us to leave?" I asked her.

"I'll stop by tonight and we'll leave tomorrow morning," she replied. "Students return to their dorms tomorrow, and classes begin the day after that."

"Okay. When do you plan on arriving?" I asked her.

"Within a couple hours," she said. "I'm a couple caverns away right now."

"Kay. I'll let the others know," I told her. "See you soon. Bye."

"Bye." She ended the call and I leaned back into the chair.

"What was that about?" Emma asked me.

"That was my mom," I replied. "They finished repairs on the University. We leave tomorrow morning."

"Yes!" Leo cheered. "No more training!"

"Why aren't we training anymore?" Mark asked us. He still had his chakram with him, although they were in a bag he had.

"We're leaving for the University tomorrow," I told him. "All repairs are finished."

"Sweet," Mark said with a grin plastered on his face. We all nodded and a few minutes later Luke arrived so we told him about it.

"Awesome," he commented. "We should find ways to hide our weapons, though."

"Good point," I said. We went over to our camp and looked for ways to hide our weapons. Mark and Leo had it easiest. Mark just tucked the bag of chakram into another bag and Leo's easily fit in a side pocket. Luke did something with his Mecha and created a compartment that hid his sword perfectly while keeping it close at hand. Emma found a way to collapse her bow, but just had to hide her arrows and hope that nobody looked in the bag. I looked around and stashed my knives in my backpack and my swords along Stryder's sides. Emma helped me by disguising the blades. The blue sheaths blended perfectly with Stryder's blue armor.

When we had it taken care of we hung out by the lake until I heard the sound of a familiar Mecha nearby.

"Mom!" I shouted, taking off for the sound. The Mecha stopped and within a few more seconds I got to the camp, where she had just parked her Mecha and was talking to Shanai about our training.

"Hey, there," she said, walking over to me. "You're gonna need new shirts soon. How much weight did you gain?"

I shrugged. "We haven't checked," I told her. I had gained quite a bit more muscle, though. For normal people, gaining this much muscle mass would take a while, but something about our Gifts allow Luke and I to build up muscle more.

"Where are the others?" she asked me, looking around.

"They're still at the lake," I told her. "Come on."

We walked over to the lake and everyone waved at Mom when they saw her.

"Hi, Ms. Shane," Emma said from the seat.

"Hi, Emma," she replied. "How was training?"

"It was…" Emma began.

"A royal pain," Luke finished.

"It was worth it, wasn't it?" Mom asked us. "You're stronger, faster, and smarter than you were before, right?"

"Yeah, and more sore," I added. She rolled her eyes and sat down on the lakeshore.

"We leave tomorrow at dawn," she told us as she watched a slight breeze make the surface of the lake ripple. "I suggest you relax and get ready to go."

We nodded and I took off my shirt, beanie, and slinging gear before jumping into the middle of the lake. I almost landed on an Aquabeek, though, and really scared him.

"Ahhhh!" the slug screamed as I fell towards him. I managed to shift my position slightly so that I narrowly missed him.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, lifting him out of the water.

"Uh…" he groaned. He rolled over in my hand and almost fell back in the water.

"Whoa, there!" I said. I focused my powers and healed him. He wasn't really hurt, just shocked and slightly bruised. "I'm sorry I hurt you, little dude," I told him. "I didn't see you from the shore."

The small Aquabeek just sat up and looked at me. "T-thank you for healing me," he said. From his voice I could tell he was still pretty young, not quite fully grown.

"Where are you parents?" I asked him.

"A slug's parent's don't hang out very long after their child's birth," Speedy whispered in my ear.

"Oh. Sorry. How would you like to join our team?" I asked the Aquabeek. "We can be your family."

"Really?" he gasped. "I'd love to!"

"Great," I said, picking him up. "Do you have a name?" I asked him.

"They call me Inker," her replied.

"Nice to meet you, Inker," I told him, putting him back in the water. "I plan on leaving the cavern tomorrow morning."

"Kay. Can't wait!" he chirped. I nodded and dove underwater to see where the others were at. After a minute I saw Emma race by as she raced a couple Aquabeeks and River. River actually won the race, much to Emma's disappointment.

"You'll get it next time," I assured her when we surfaced. "You're just tired out from repeated use of your powers."

She nodded and I dove back under to look for the others. I watched as Mark drifted by, looking bored as Luke used his Aquabeek to propel himself in the water. He blew past Mark, though, setting him spinning around and around until he managed to correct himself, surfacing to breathe.

"You okay there?" I asked Mark, surfacing as well. He nodded and took a deep breath before plunging back under.

After an hour of this we got out of the lake and used our Fire element slugs to dry our clothes before returning to camp to eat dinner.

"I'm gonna finish packing now before I forget," I told the others when we finished. I went over to my bags and sorted my clean and dirty clothes into different bags, folding them so that they would fit better. I cleaned out all my slug tubes and my blasters as well. Blasters usually need to be cleaned _at least_ once a month so that dirt doesn't cause it to malfunction, like Eli's first blaster did. When he told me the story about it the blaster was the first thing I thought of when I learned how often blasters need to be cleaned.

"Whatcha doing?" Emma asked as she sat down beside me.

"Cleaning my blasters," I replied, using a fine brush to clean off the wiring in my fusion blaster. There is a lot of wiring in it.

"Why? Didn't you do that yesterday?" she added.

"Yeah, but there's nothing else to do, and I didn't completely clean it last time," I explained, putting it back together.

"Oh. How often are you supposed to clean your blasters, anyways?" she asked me.

"Once a month," I told her. "Why?"

She blushed slightly. "I haven't cleaned my blaster in several months," she said. She sounded slightly embarrassed about it.

I smiled. "I can clean it now, if you want," I said, holding out my hands. She smiled back and handed me her blaster.

"Thank you," she replied, sitting down beside me. I nodded and began meticulously cleaning the blaster, picking out small pieces of dirt as I went. It was clear that she hadn't cleaned her blaster in a while, because when I finished the blaster was several shades brighter.

"There you go," I said, handing her the blaster and putting away my cleaning kit.

"Thanks," she replied, placing the blaster in her holster.

"No problem," I assured her. We got up and finished packing before gathering around the fire as we listened to Mom tell us stories about the war against SlugTerra.

"Eli had just sent me on a mission to investigate stories about a mysterious person working for Blakk. According to reports, she used a Dragon Mecha," she began. "I continued my investigation, and eventually it led me to Blakk's fortress. I stayed hidden there for days, watching the mysterious woman come and go from the fortress. After a week there I left to report to Eli, but when I turned toward my Mecha the woman was there atop her large Dragon Mecha. She demanded who I was and why I was there. I didn't want to give in easily, so I tried dueling with her. She didn't have any slugs, but used her Mecha to pin me down. She repeated the question, and I had no choice but to tell her. She scowled when she heard my name, and the claw holding me down pushed harder. I pleaded for her to let me go, but she didn't until she saw Saphira in one of my slug tubes. She asked me if I was a Shane, and I told her I was. She frowned further but released me, something about having no quarrels with Shanes. She told me her name and that I needed to leave as soon as possible."

"What was the girl's name?" Leo asked her.

"Kaiya Skye," she said.

"What? Kaiya used to work for Blakk?" Leo demanded.

"Yeah," I told him. "She left that life behind, though, when Thaddeus Blakk died."

"Cool," Leo commented.

"We should go to bed now," Mom told us. "We have a long day ahead of us."

"Kay," we replied. We changed into our pajamas and I jumped into the hammock, almost launching Emma out.

"Hey!" she grumbled. "Be nice."

"Sure," I replied. We got comfortable and fell asleep, oblivious to Mom glaring at us.

The next morning, our slugs managed to wake us up early enough to finish anything we forgot last night, eat breakfast and leave. Right before we left Red Hook gave me _another_ book to read, insisting that it was better than the University. I just nodded and placed it in a bag.

"I missed this place," Leo sighed when we got back to our dorm room eight hours later.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30—Back at the University

Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to leave one at the bottom! Sorry it's a bit shorter than usual, but I wanted to be able to post quickly.

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When we got to our room Leo and I began unpacking, making sure to hide our weapons well. Leo just stuck the spear into his pocket, but I hid the swords between my dresser and the wall. I stuck the knives in one of my dresser drawers. I know it's not creative, but I just needed a simple spot to hide them in.

"You ready for school to start up again tomorrow?" I asked Leo as I jumped onto my bed.

"Definitely," he replied. "Hey, did you hear about the tournament tonight?"

"Nope. What is it?" I said.

"Aunt Karina told me that after dinner today, there's gonna be an all-out battle royale tournament to celebrate the finishing of repairs to the University," Leo explained. "Once signups end all the duelists will duel in groups of eight to make sure that it doesn't get too crowded."

"When do signups end?" I asked him.

"Signups end when dinner ends," he replied. "You can signup right outside the cafeteria."

"Awesome," I said. "We can sign up as we go to dinner. What's the prize for winning the tournament?"

"Hm, let me check," he replied, pulling up the page on his data pad. "It's known as a Shadow Bringer slug," he added, showing me the picture. The slug was mostly white with a black circle on its stomach, blue eyes and two blue antennae and a star on its forehead.

"I've never heard of those before," I commented.

"Same here. Apparently this is the only one ever discovered," he told me. "Wait, there's this caution sign below it."

"What does it say?" I asked him.

"It says that a person may win the slug, but the slug also has to choose you," he replied. "If it does not like its slinger, it has a tendency to leave the person."

"Well, we just have to treat the slug like we treat all other slugs," I told him.

"Like family," he agreed. I nodded and checked the time on my Glasses. It was almost time for dinner.

"Let's get going," I told him. "It's almost time for dinner."

We stood up and grabbed all of our slugs as we walked out. Our friends were waiting for us outside the res hall.

"What took you so long?" Luke joked as we walked over to the cafeteria.

"We were discussing the tournament," I replied.

"Yeah, I heard about that," Mark said. "I don't care that you guys are competing, I'm gonna enter too."

"Why?" Emma asked him.

"I want the Shadow Bringer slug," he told us. "It's ultra rare, and I love rare slugs."

"Good point," Leo replied. "I hope you guys are ready to lose, though, because that slug is as good as mine."

"Don't flatter yourself," I replied. "Just hope that they don't stick us all in one group. That would be unfair for the others and entertaining for everyone else."

"Agreed," Luke said. "Thing is, though, that there are probably enough people that we won't be in the same group for a while."

"Good point," Leo agreed. Right then we got to the registration desk, so we wrote down our names and were assigned group numbers. As Luke predicted, each of us got a different number.

"I can't wait till this thing finally starts!" Mark declared when we got to the third level of the cafeteria, which had Mexican food that day. We loaded our plates with burritos, tacos, and a bunch of other stuff before walking over to our usual table to eat.

"Hey, Shane," someone said as the person walked up behind me. I turned around and saw Vinyl standing there.

"Hey, Vinyl," I replied. "What's up?"

"Can you do me a favor?" she said awkwardly.

"Sure. What do you need?" I asked her.

She pulled out her blaster, which had a few gauges in it. "Do you think you can fix it?" she asked me. "I got in some trouble with slug hounds."

"Couldn't you just use your Gift for it?" I asked her.

"No. I have to understand what I'm doing in order to manipulate a specific piece of technology, and I know next to nothing about blasters," she admitted.

"Sure." I accepted the blaster and ran a diagnostic scan of it. The fusion core had become disconnected from the rest of it, so I just reconnected a few wires and charged the blaster with energy. "I can't take care of the cosmetic damage right now, but it should fire like it was brand new," I explained, handing it back to her.

"Kay. Thanks," she replied. "Also, could you help me with something later?" she added.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"I don't want to talk about it in front of other people," she snapped. "Just meet me at the Arena tonight, and bring your slugs."

"Um…okay," I said cautiously.

"Thanks. See ya, Shane," she told me. I nodded and she returned to her table.

"I wonder what she wants to talk to you about," Emma commented.

I shrugged. "No clue," I replied before sinking my teeth into a burrito.

When we finished with dinner we rushed to our rooms to get ready for the tournament, grabbing all of our slugs and some mods.

"Let's go before we're late," Leo told me when we were finished getting ready. I nodded and we walked out, meeting with the others before walking over to the Arena for the first round of the Battle Royale Tournament.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31—Battle Royale

Thanks for the reviews! Don't forget to leave a review and/or suggestion at the bottom! I would also like to thank Jackie Winters for lending me the Shadow Bringer slug. You rock, Jackie!

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"Welcome to the Battle Royale Tournament!" an announcer shouted into his microphone. He somehow manages to make it to every single competition throughout SlugTerra, because the voice is always the same. "Due to the amount of people who registered for the tournaments, we will be having two groups compete at a time instead of one. The first groups will be one and two."

"Good luck!" Emma shouted as Luke and I walked out.

"Let's team up to take out everyone else until the end," I told Luke. He nodded and we stood back-to-back as the announcer fired a Hop Rock. Once it detonated in midair we started attacking each other. I used a trick shot to take out over half of them, and Luke used Casper to scare off the remaining half a dozen.

"Whoa! Ladies and Gentlemen, this is one of the quickest knockout rounds so far!" the announcer proclaimed. "Now, only two people remain, Luke Jones and Jake Shane."

"Let's go, Shane," Luke said as we separated.

"Bring it on, Jones," I replied, loading River. He loaded his Lavalynx, Melter, and we both launched slugs at each other. River hit the ground and created frozen waves that redirected Melter back at Luke, creating a pit of lava directly next to him. He dove away from it and launched his Speedstinger into a trick shot.

"Worst mistake ever," I told him, swinging my staff in time to hit the Speedstinger back at him. "Never use a Speedstinger at me," I added, launching Brisingr and Yang in a fusion shot, which created a shadowy flame that followed Luke when he tried to dodge it, singing his hair.

"Let's finish this quickly," I told Yang and Medic, loading them into my fusion blaster and charging them to SuperMorph as Dynamo supplied the energy. I launched the fusion shot once ready, blowing past his slugs and winning me the round.

"The winner of this round is Jacob Shane!" the announcer shouted. I raised my hands in victory before launching Dynamo to recharge the slugs and myself as well. I went over to the duelists' seats and sat down as two more groups walked out, including Leo and Mark. Leo and Mark teamed together and easily took out everyone else, and after that Leo and Mark dueled for several minutes. Mark would not give up, constantly Mega- and SuperMorphing his slugs until he ran out of energy, when Leo won the duel by combining Save and Burpy in a fusion shot, which completely wiped out Mark.

"I really wanted that slug," Mark groaned as we got up and helped him to his seat. He was covered in bruises and might have had a broken rib, so I used my powers to heal all the injuries.

As the rounds continued, Vinyl defeated Rob and Emma also moved on, so it was four people left for the final round.

"Let's try as hard as we can for this," I told the others as we walked out for the final round. "We shouldn't team up, either. That'll just make things boring."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Leo laughed as we walked out. The announcer launched his Hop Rock to signal us. When it exploded we started slinging slugs like there was no tomorrow. Vinyl automatically started by launching Angel to create endless copies of herself. I chuckled and took them out with Blaster's grenades, which, amazingly, didn't knock her out. She just stumbled a bit but stood up again, loading a Neotox and launching it at us. I launched a Vinedrill, and its Vinevent attack absorbed the Neotox poison. Emma launched her Gazzer at all of us, causing us to laugh uncontrollably until I managed to launch Bluster, who whisked away the gas with his tornado, picking up Vinyl as well and throwing her out of the Arena.

"Sorry Vinyl!" I shouted as she disappeared from sight. I grabbed my fusion blaster and loaded both ends. I put it in fusion mode, but aimed each end at Leo or Emma.

"Looks like we got ourselves a draw," I said in a faked Western accent. Eli said that every time he dueled Mom.

"Let's go," Leo said. He pulled the trigger, launching Garbage, his Flatulorhinkus, at me. I fired Suds back at him, which swallowed the slug and then, surprisingly, him. He tried to hold his breath, but failed and passed out when he took a breath.

"That took him out quicker than usual," Emma commented as she launched her Negashade at me. I responded with Glimmer, canceling out her Shadowblak attack. Instead, I used Yang's Shadowblak attack to fill the Arena with darkness. As Emma stumbled around I fired Speedy at chest height before diving to the ground.

"What are you doing on the ground?" Emma asked, pointing Bruiser at me when she found me location.

"Waiting for Speedy," I said casually. Speedy flew in from nowhere and knocked the blaster out of her hand. I snatched it up, spinning around and putting it to her head.

"We have a winner!" the announcer said when the smoke cleared. "The winner is Jacob Shane!"

I handed the blaster back to Emma and found all my slugs before approaching the announcer, who held the Shadow Bringer slug.

"Hello, there," I said, allowing the slug to hop on my hand. "I'm glad to have you on the team. I hope we become good friends. Do you have a name?"

It shook its head and look at me thoughtfully. I heard that these slugs could read a slinger's true nature, so that's probably what he was doing.

"How about I name you 'Misty'?" I asked it.

It examined me for another second before nodding. "Sounds good," it said. From the voice I could tell it was a girl, and really young.

"Good to have you on the team, Misty," I told her, setting her on my shoulder. She nodded and hopped onto my blaster to check it out.

"Curious little slug, aren't you?" I commented, catching her before she hit the ground.

She shrugged again. "That's just how I am. Deal with it," she told me. I chuckled and placed her in a slug tube. She smiled and introduced herself to the rest of my team as I chatted with my friends.

"Good job out there today," Mom said, walking up to us.

"Thanks," we replied.

She crouched down to Misty's level. "So, you're a Shadow Bringer slug?" she asked the slug.

"That's me," Misty replied before looking at Mom intently.

"Why is she staring at me like that?" Mom asked us.

"She's sensing your true intentions," I explained. "It's what she does."

After a minute like this Misty looked at the rest of us and nodded.

"It's good to know she likes me," Mom commented before straightening up. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. I need to take care of something for one of my classes."

"Kay, good night," we all replied. She walked away and we wandered around campus until I remembered my meeting with Vinyl.

"See you guys tomorrow," I said when I remembered. "I have that meeting with Vinyl."

"Oh, yeah. Stay safe," Emma told me. I nodded and kissed her before walking away to the meeting with Vinyl.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32—Meeting With Vinyl

Thanks for the reviews! Sorry it took so long to update, but I haven't had the motivation to write for this story. Anyways, don't forget to leave a review! New ideas are welcome!

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SOME OOC BEHAVIOR FOR VINYL, so don't worry!

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I walked over to the Arena, blaster at the ready in case Vinyl wasn't in the mood for talking. When I got to the Arena I entered it and walked over to a side wall right before the actual Arena part.

"I didn't think you'd show up," Vinyl said after waiting there for twenty minutes.

"_I_ wasn't sure if I'd show up," I told her, my hand hovering near my blaster. "What do you want, anyway?"

"To pass on a message," she told me. "It doesn't matter where you imprison him, you cannot hold Blakk. He will always find a way to escape."

I froze and grabbed her wrist in an iron-like grasp. "Where did you hear that?" I growled threateningly. "Are you working for Blakk?"

"No, but my dad does," she snapped. Her eyes glowed red and metal flew around her hand until she was holding a knife to my arm. "Now, let me go unless you want to lost your arm."

I scowled but released her arm. "Why did you tell me this?" I demanded. "You could have said this to my mother."

"My father told me to say that to you specifically," she said.

"Why did you even do it?" I asked her.

"He kinda…threatenedtoghoulmyslugsifIdidn't," she said quickly.

"English, please?" I asked her.

"He threatened to ghoul my slugs if I didn't," she repeated, slower this time.

My eyes widened. "He seriously said that?" I gasped. "You're his daughter."

She shrugged. "I can't really stop him, and I don't have any other family," she explained. She pulled out a red slug tube and showed me a ghouled Frostcrawler. The ghouled energy given off by it made me feel slightly sick to my stomach. "He even ghouled my Frostcrawler and damaged my blaster to prove a point," she added.

"Let me see," I told her. I took the tube and focused my powers on the slug, replacing its dark energy with my light energy. After a second of bright light it faded to reveal that the slug was healed. "You shouldn't let him do this to you or your slugs," I told her. "You are better than him. I've seen your slinging, you're the best for your age. You should stand up to him, especially if he threatens you like this."

She shook her head. "You don't know him," she told me. "He worked for the original Blakk, and still has the original ghouls from when he worked for Thaddeus. They're powerful. I tried to stand up to him once, but he crushed me in a duel."

I nodded. "Where do you live?" I asked her.

She looked up at me suddenly. "What? You can't face him," she told me. "He's powerful, even better than Blakk at dueling."

"I don't care," I snapped. "You're my friend, and I don't let people hurt my friends, or their slugs."

She sighed. "He lives in Slagrock Cavern," she said. "It's a house at the edge of the town."

"Thanks," I replied. I turned to walk away, but she grabbed my arm.

"Don't go after him until the weekend," she said. I nodded and she fired Angel to make herself disappear.

"I will, Vinyl," I whispered before walking back to my dorm.

"So?" Leo asked when I walked in. "What happened with Vinyl?"

"It was nothing," I said, going over the events in my mind.

"Really?" he asked, eyebrows rising. "No way she would have you meet her at night and have it turn out to be 'nothing'. What really happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I told him, and the serious tone I used caused him to shut up and fall asleep.

"You should tell them about it before you go to Slagrock," Yang told me.

"I will," I replied before changing into pajamas and climbing into bed, soon falling asleep as my slugs followed suit.

The next day was a Friday, so I just went through the classes as well as I could, and afterwards I prepped for the trip to Slagrock the next day.

"Where ya going?" Emma asked me after dinner when she walked into our dorm room.

"You said you'd tell them," Yang reminded me.

"Tell us what?" Mark demanded, standing behind Emma. Luke heard and walked across the hall to where we were standing. Leo was already sitting on his bed.

I took a deep breath and sighed. "When I met with Vinyl last night, she told me something," I said. I told them all about our conversation.

"So you're going to fight Vinyl's father to make sure he doesn't hurt Vinyl?" Leo asked me. I nodded. "Let me ask you something. Do you really think we would let you go alone?"

"Yeah, I guess I did," I replied. "This is my thing to do. Besides, too many of us going would attract his attention before we even get there."

"No way," Luke said. "We're friends, and we don't let friends do things like this alone."

"I'll be fine," I assured him. "Anyway, I leave tomorrow, so you can lay off me until then."

They grumbled but left me to my devices. I grabbed the book Red Hook lent me and opened it to where I left the bookmark, a leaf from a nearby tree. I needed a nearby bookmark, and it was the first thing I saw. I continued where I left off and continued until it was time to sleep, when I got comfortable and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up earlier than usual to try and sneak away, but Leo beat me.

"So, are we going with you?" he asked me.

"Um…" I began, feeling in my pocket. "No," I added, activating my Shadow Walker, teleporting me and my things to Stryder, jumping on his back and activating it, going as fast as I could. I heard a slight whizzing in my ears before Emma appeared next to me.

"You don't have to do this alone," she told me.

"I know, but this is my mission," I replied before using Misty to teleport myself to Slagrock, where I almost ran into Vinyl.

"Whoa, watch where you're teleporting," she snapped at me.

"Why did you get here so early?" I asked her.

"I always leave early," she explained. "I'll go to my house, and after about ten minutes follow me in."

I nodded and used Illusion to render me and my Mecha invisible before following her to a house at the edge of the town in Slagrock. She parked her Mecha and took a deep breath before walking in. I activated the sound amplifier in my Glasses so that I could listen to the conversation as well as activating a timer.

"So, did you tell him what I told you?" her father demanded.

"Yes, I did," she said shakily. I had never realized before that her tough attitude was developed to hide this part of her life.

"Good. Looks like you can actually do something," he growled. I frowned but Yang held me back.

"I'm not as weak as you think I am," Vinyl said. "I can fend for myself."

"Yeah, but you couldn't even win the Shadow Bringer slug for Blakk," he snapped. Vinyl opened a window for 'ventilation', giving me a perfect view of him.

"The Shane boys were competing," she explained. "I didn't have very much of a chance against them. They're the best slingers on campus, maybe in the 99 Caverns."

"Nonsense," he snapped. "Dr. Blakk is the best slinger there ever has been and ever will be."

"You're wrong," she told me. "Jacob Shane has beaten Dr. Blakk countless times and put him in jail almost every time they have fought."

"How dare you speak like that!" he snapped. "Shane fights dirty, that is how he wins. Never speak like that to me again!" he held his hand and she flinched. It wasn't ten minutes yet, but I charged forward, launched Stinger, who launched webbing to attach his hand to the wall.

"Jake, it wasn't ten minutes!" Vinyl hissed when Illusion ended the spell.

"Shane!" her father shouted. "See, Vanessa? He fights dirty."


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33—Confronting Mr. Rose

Thanks for the reviews! This contains more OOC for Vinyl. Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been working on new fanfics and old ones.

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Disclaimer: I do not own SlugTerra, only my own OCs. Thank you to those of you who have lent me your OCs.

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"You are a horrible father," I growled, using Larry to glue his other hand to the wall. "You shouldn't threaten your daughter like this. You should love her like a normal father does. She isn't worthless. She is an amazing slinger, and very intelligent. You should be proud to call her your daughter, not as degrading towards her as you are."

"Vanessa! You betrayed me, your own father?" he yelled.

"He's right," she said. "You nearly destroyed my blaster and ghouled one of my slugs. You almost crushed my chances of becoming a good slinger when you almost didn't let me go to SU, where I met Jake and made friends."

Her father snarled at us. "Where will you go?" he demanded. "You have no other family."

"I have friends that would take me in," Vinyl told him. He growled and loaded a Goon Doc, aiming it at me.

"Oh, really?" he snapped. "Either you stay with me, Vinyl, or I kill your friend here."

"You can try, but it won't work," I told him, launching Medic in MegaMorph to heal all of his ghouls. He growled but replaced the slug with a Thresher. He activated an accelerator on his blaster and launched it at me. I bent backwards, and it got so close that it cut off a lock of my hair. I recovered and launched Brisingr in SuperMorph, blocking him behind a wall of flames.

"Thanks for helping me, Jake," she told me. "Now, watch out," she added, launching her Slyren. I ducked and plugged my ears as the Slyren used its Sleepytime attack to make her father fall asleep.

"Will you be okay?" I asked her. She nodded shakily, so I nodded back and slowly left, looking out for any goons.

The coast was clear so I left the cavern, using Misty's teleportation powers to take me back to the University.

"What happened?" Leo demanded when I arrived at our room.

I explained what happened as I sat on my bed.

"Wow, I hope Vinyl finds someone she can stay with," he added when I finished.

I nodded. "She's gonna stay with her friends," I explained. "So, I heard there's another tournament this weekend."

"Yeah, it's a team competition, two-on-two," he replied. "So, you got a partner for it yet?"

"I hope so," I replied, looking at the door as Emma walked in. He frowned but shrugged since it made sense.

"So, you done running now?" she asked me, sitting beside me on the bed.

"Yep," I replied, kissing her.

"Oh, get a room," Leo told me.

"This kinda _is_ my room," I replied before kissing her again.

"Yeah, but it's also _my_ room," he said. "Go to Emma's room."

"We can't," Emma told him. "My roommate's busy making out with her boyfriend in there."

Leo sighed and stood up. "I'm gonna hang out with Luke and Mark," he told us.

"Make that just Mark," Emma told him.

"Why?" he asked her.

"Luke is my roommate's boyfriend," she told me. I burst out laughing as he scowled and muttered the word "Couples," in an annoyed tone. He walked out as Emma and I continued to kiss each other.

"Did you hear about the competition later today?" she asked me.

"Yeah. Do you have a partner yet?" I replied.

She pulled back her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, wanna be partners?" I asked her, getting the hint. She smiled and nodded before kissing me again. I smiled and pulled her closer.

"Alright, that's enough," Mom said five minutes later, launching her Bubbaleone. It velocimorphed directly between us, launching us apart.

"MOM!" I screamed, pushing the slug away. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to see if you heard about the tournament," she said. "Apparently, you were preoccupied."

"I'll just…go," Emma said uncomfortably, walking out.

"You don't have to go," I told her, reaching for her hand. She smiled and kissed me again before running out under my mother's glare.

"What was that about?" I demanded when Mom closed the door behind her. "You knew I would've known about the tournament. Besides, you've seen us kiss before. How is this any different?"

"This was different," she told me. "You two were alone."

"Yeah? Nothing was going to happen other than what was going on when you barged in," I snapped.

She sighed and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Jake, when a man and a woman like each other really much—" she began, but I cut her off.

"Oh, _please_ tell me this isn't 'The Talk'," I groaned.

"This is just as embarrassing for me as it is for you," she told me.

"I really doubt that," I told her. "Besides, Eli and Trixie beat you to the punch. They gave me 'The Talk' the day before I left for the University last year."

"Yes, but that was before you had a girlfriend," she told me.

"I'm pretty sure it still works the same," I assured her. "You _really_ don't need to do this."

She sighed in relief. "Good," she said. "The idea of doing this kinda scared me."

"Believe me, it scared me as well," I replied. She laughed and nodded.

"Well, I need to grade papers," she said after a minute. I nodded and she walked out. I sighed and fell back on my bed before going to lunch with the others.

"What happened with your mom?" Emma asked me as we sat next to each other.

"She tried to give me 'The Talk'," I told her. "Eli and Trixie beat them to the punch, though, so we were both spared the conversation."

She giggled and began eating her pizza as I dug my fork into a pile of spaghetti.

After lunch Emma and I practiced a bit before hanging out at the library while working on some homework. Mark helped me on a question for Slugology, but other than that Emma and I were by ourselves the rest of the time. We made sure to sign up as a team for the tournament before heading off for dinner later that day.

"Who's gonna be your partner for the tournament?" I asked Leo when I returned to my room after dinner.

"I'm teaming up with Luke," he explained. "Mark isn't competing."

"Oh," I replied. I grabbed my fusion blaster and hooked my blaster up with an accelerator I built, charged with more power than usual so that I wouldn't use more later on to SuperMorph.

"We should get going before they start without us," Leo suggested. I nodded and we left for the Arena for the Team Tournament.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34—Team Tournament

Thanks for the reviews everyone! Tui, La, and Elina belong to JackieWinters, Leo Shane belongs to Create-gunner1209, and Karina Shane belongs to Aist Elixie Fan Shane. SlugTerra does not belong to me.

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"Welcome everybody to the SU Team Tournament!" the announcer told us when we were all there. I looked at Emma and smiled at her as he read over the rules, which were the same as for every one: No ghouls, don't kill your opponent(s), and most important of all, have fun and try your hardest!

"I wonder why they haven't announced the prize for winning," Emma commented seconds before the announcer told us.

"Today's prizes are two slugs for the two victors. These two slugs are known as Yin-Yang slugs, and are actually brother and sister," he told us.

"How did they get their hands on slugs like that?" I commented. That question was also answered moments later.

"These slugs were donated by a very important sponsor of SlugTerra University," he told us. "Please give a round of applause for none other than Elina Shane!"

"Shane?" Emma commented. Overhead, though, I could just imagine Elina storming over to the announcer and snatching the microphone.

"My name is Elina _Shae_, not _Shane_!" she screamed into the microphone. I laughed as the others were left clueless.

"Eli told me stories about how when they were our age and they were dating everyone called her Elina Shane," I explained. "She still hates being called it."

"Oh," Emma said, giggling as Elina returned to her seat.

"I wonder why Elina donated those slugs," I added, looking at the picture of the slugs. One was white and had the symbol for Yin on its stomach. From the look of it I could tell it was the sister. The other one, the brother, was black with the symbol for Yang on it.

"Probably because she knew a team with you or Leo would win," Emma told me.

"True enough," I replied, shrugging. The announcer called out two teams to begin, and they were Leo and Luke against some other kids our age. Leo and Luke easily beat them, though. Luke's one of the best slingers our age, and Leo's the best slinger for his age. After that was Emma and I against Rob and one of his cronies.

"Ready to get crushed again?" I said to Rob as we walked out to the Arena floor.

"Not this time," he told me. "I may not have ghouls, but I have something even better," he added, holding up his blaster, which had been equipped with an accelerator.

"This is still gonna be easy," I told Emma. When the announcer fired his Hop Rock to signal us we began firing in MegaMorph, a couple slugs even in SuperMorph. Every slug, even the MegaMorphs, blew by his MegaMorphed slugs. Many wouldn't even reach MegaMorph because they weren't ready for it.

"You have to train your slugs to handle MegaMorph, not jut expect them to be able to handle it," I told Rob when we beat them. He growled at us but didn't say anything as we returned to our seats and they walked out.

"Good job out there," Luke told me as the next two teams walked out to the field.

"Thanks," we replied. "You, too."

"Thanks," Luke and Leo said.

The next round had eight teams, but we had to wait for the next day because it was getting so late. Fortunately, though, it was starting after lunch instead of after dinner.

"I can't wait for it to continue," Leo commented the next morning. I nodded and got dressed for the day. After lunch everyone rushed to the Arena as I grabbed my slugs, blasters, and several mods.

"Is everyone ready for round two?" the announcer screamed when we were all there. We all stood up and cheered. "I can't hear you!" he added. We cheered even louder before he called out two teams to duel. One was Leo and Luke and another was composed of two older students, both pretty good slingers. They had to try harder than before, but they ended up winning in the end.

"Good job out there," Emma told them when they came back. They nodded as we were called out to duel Rob's other crony and another guy our age. It turns out that the other crony was actually a better slinger than Rob, so we had a tougher fight but won due to MegaMorphing our slugs.

During the next round I was disappointed that we didn't duel against Luke and Leo, but we were soon satisfied when we ended up dueling each other in the final round, the championship.

"Let's go all-out," I told them when we were out on the Arena floor. They nodded so when the announcer launched his Hop Rock to signal us we began slinging with everything we had. I've gotta admit, they almost beat us but I fired Speedy in SuperMorph to knock their slugs away and make them duck long enough for us to catch our breath and gain the upper hand, doing a double Shadowblak attack with Shadow and Yang. Luke was left blind, but Leo just had to take off his eyepatch, using his Shadowclan powers to see through the darkness. To startle them we also both fired Phosphoro slugs followed by fusion shots of Arachnet and Tazerling from me and Tazerling and Jellyish. The electrified net tied down Luke as Emma's fusion shot launched electrified goop at Leo, sticking him to the ground while delivering repeated shocks that, while they wouldn't cause harm, kept them from focusing.

"The winner is Jacob Shane and Emmaline Walker!" the announcer screamed in the end. The crowd cheered as Elina herself presented us with the slugs.

"I'll warn you with these two," she told us as she handed us each a tube. "These two slugs will only work together in a fusion shot. If you try them alone or with a different slug, they won't even be able to take down a Flopper."

"In that case, they should only have one slinger," I said, handing mine, the black one, to Emma.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," she told me. "You'd do better with the slugs."

"No, you would," I said. "You love slugs more than any of us, and I have a feeling they like you, too."

"Hi!" the white one chirped. "I'm La, and this is my brother, Tui!"

"Well, I'm Emma, and this is Jacob," Emma said. "Would you like to join my team?"

"YES!" La chirped happily. "What about you, bro?"

"Sure, why not?" Tui chirped.

"Sorry about him, he's not very social," La told us. I chuckled at seeing the three of them interact.

"Well, let's get back to the dorms so that I can introduce you to the rest of my slugs," Emma told them. They nodded and she placed them on her bandolier.

"Congratulations to both of you for winning the competition," Elina told us again before walking away. Elina and I hugged each other, almost squishing our slugs before remembering them.

"Oh, sorry guys," I told my slugs. They nodded and made kissy noises, which I ignored. Misty waved at Tui and La and they waved back at her as we walked back to our rooms.

"Good job in that last duel," Leo told us when we reached my room.

"Thanks," we replied. "You, too."

"Thanks," Luke and Leo said. "So, what do those two slugs do?"

"Not sure. Apparently they can only be fired in a fusion shot," Emma replied. "Good thing we can use fusion shots."

"Yeah, that's good," Leo commented. We separated into our rooms and I put away my mods and fusion blaster.

"Why'd you give your slugs to Emma?" Leo asked me as we sat on our beds.

"The slugs need to be used in a fusion shot, and I saw that Emma really likes the slugs, so I gave Tui to her," I explained.

"Oh," he replied. I nodded and finished taking care of our stuff. I pulled out a book to read as Leo played with his slugs.

That night after dinner there was a movie held out on the grass behind Shane Hall, so we all left at dark and gathered on the lawn, laying out blankets to sit or lay on as the movie, an action movie, began. It involved a lot of slinging and explosions. The sound system was so advanced that you could feel the ground shake with each explosion.

After the movie we returned to our dorms, but Mom was waiting for me at mine.

"What's wrong?" I asked her when I saw her standing there.

"I need to talk to you, Leo, and your friends," she told me. "Gather them together and meet me outside."

I nodded and turned to get everyone together.

"What's going on?" Leo said when he saw me.

"My mom needs to see us all outside," I told him. He nodded and walked out. I managed to catch everyone as they went to their rooms, and we met outside Shane Hall.

"What happened?" I asked Mom when we were all together.

"I have bad new, guys," she replied.


End file.
